Stella Modern Italian Cuisine OKC

Stella Modern Italian Cuisine OKC was a random, but superb place to celebrate our 52nd Wedding Anniversary!!!

Oklahoma City

We arrived in Oklahoma City just a couple of days before our anniversary which was on March 23. (I know. I know. I am waaaaay behind on my posts! There is always just so much to tell you about and so little time!!!) So when we got settled in, I started search menus online to find a good place for us to celebrate.

Taste a menu with your mind

It seems that I can always learn a lot about a restaurant by reading their menus. Establishments don’t realize how telling a menu can be. A menu that is well written makes me want to order each dish. It guides me and encourages me to “taste” the dishes with my imagination. Good descriptions are key.

Anyone can taste a recipe with their mind. All you need to do is thing about what each ingredient tastes like. Knowing that, it is pretty easy to go from there and imagine what the ingredients would taste like combined. Try it sometime.

Stella Modern Italian Cuisine OKC  

So, after perusing at least a dozen menus, I decided that Stella Modern Italian Cuisine OKC would be the perfect celebratory restaurant. We have a fondness for restaurants of that name. There was a Stella! (no relation to the one in OKC) in New Orleans that we adored.

Fire near the restaurant

As we were driving to our destination we noticed a huge plume of gray smoke billowing from somewhere off in the distance. The further we drove toward Stella, the closer we got to that smoke. And the blacker that smoke became. It wasn’t until we were on the same street as Stella that we could see the flames.

The building that was on fire was just about 2 blocks away in downtown OKC. As we learned later, there have been a string of fires in abandoned buildings. Unfortunately homeless people take up residence in these buildings, putting themselves at high risk of not being able to escape a fire of this magnitude. Very sad sign of the times.

Building built in the 1920s

We arrived at Stella Modern Italian Cuisine OKC to discover how cool the building’s architecture was. Originally built in the 1920s it has seen many iterations as a business, including an automotive mechanic’s garage.

Today it is a romantic and welcoming location to enjoy any meal. But what really makes this place special is the owner, Lori Burson, who welcomes her guests with an open heart.

The back story

I love knowing the back story and hope you do too. This restaurant was born in Rome. When Lori was a sophomore in college she studied abroad for a semester. It’s there in Rome that she fell in love with Italian food and wine. But more importantly she loved the way Italians focused their lives around food. Every meal there was a celebration. That’s when Lori decided that she wanted to bring that attitude back home and create her own restaurant.

The atmosphere

Lori opened Stella Modern Italian Cuisine on April 22, 2010, after spending close to 20 years in food service. A neighborhood restaurant, with a neighborhood feel. She chose a location on the edge of her own Heritage Hills neighborhood so that she could live and work around friends and family. “Guests enjoy fine dining quality food and service in a fun, relaxed atmosphere.”

Stella is a place where according to Lori, “You’ll be comfortable here in cargo shorts or a tuxedo.” It’s not all about the atmosphere though. The staff at Stella is serious about serving the needs of the customer. Lori has a simple philosophy about customer service: “The answer is yes. What’s the question?” If only more restauranteurs shared that philosophy!

The food

Our first inkling of what we had in store at Stella Modern Italian Cuisine OKC was the basket of freshly baked, still hot, bread that was placed before us. The crust was crisp but light and the crumb was delicate. It was perfectly decadent slathered with lightly salted butter.

Warm Mushroom Salad

To start off our meal Steve and I shared the Warm Mushroom Salad. It was a stand out starter! Tender mix greens were piled high with an earthy assortment of sautéed mushrooms that included shiitake, enoki, crimini and oyster. Add nutty Spanish Manchego cheese, toasted pine nuts and a tart red wine vinaigrette to the mix and you have the fabulous salad that we ate that night.

Shrimp Risotto

Following that, Steve had the Shrimp Risotto. It was rich and creamy with the addition of saffron, soppressata, shallot, roasted red pepper, peas, mascarpone, gremolata and charred lemon to enhance the delicate flavor of the perfectly cooked plump shrimp.

Wild Boar Bolognese

For me the Wild Boar Bolognese was calling my name. Flavorful braised wild boar along with soffritto, roasted tomatoes, fresh basil and shaved Parmesano Reggiano and al dente rigatoni created a dish that I couldn’t stop eating.

Tiramisu

We were thinking about ordering Tiramisu for dessert, when it suddenly a large white platter was presented to us. It held a beautiful round portion of Tiramisu for two, along with anniversary wishes written in deep dark chocolate. It was the perfect ending at the perfect place in Oklahoma City to celebrate 52 years of marriage.