Food, Love & Art: Fresh Pasta, Fine Wine & Big Flavor at Luciano’s

To craft Luciano’s Cucina Italiana’s lobster ravioli, prep cook Bruce Allen rolls out house-made pasta dough, placing a piece over a metal ravioli mold. A second plastic mold is used to create six sunken pockets that he tops with a filling of freshly flown in Maine lobster, dill, tarragon, ricotta, mascarpone, sage, parsley, lemon zest and lemon juice. Allen places a second layer of pasta over top and rolls it out to reveal perforations to separate the pieces. All this work produces just six delectable pieces of lobster ravioli ($36). This labor goes into all of Luciano’s handmade pastas.

“We make 90 percent of our menu from scratch — breads, pasta dough, all of the fillings for our pastas — anything we can,” says executive chef Eric Hinman.

Luciano’s owner Joel Testa, president of Testa Companies, owns the Northside District building previously occupied by Chrissie Hynde’s VegiTerranean and Dante Boccuzzi Akron, which closed in December 2024. Amid several casual local Italian American restaurants, Testa aimed to fill a void for an upscale authentic Italian option with the opening of Luciano’s in March. The restaurant reflects Testa’s heritage — his paternal grandmother and grandfather hailed from Carovilli, Italy. Testa visited — and attests true Italian food is unlike garlicky, heavily seasoned Americanized versions.

“The sauces are very light, very fresh,” says Testa, adding that he strives for this approach. “Everything’s based on freshness and honoring the ingredients.”

From Italy, Luciano’s imports olive oil, flours and San Marzano tomatoes, which are grown in Italy in peak sunlight for enhanced flavor. The Italian flour used by the restaurant is not enriched or bleached.

“It does create a lighter, airier product,” Hinman says. “The texture is really good — it melts in your mouth.”

Testa gave Luciano’s space a fresh, bright Italian feel with stone wall accents and Tuscany-inspired arborvitae trees — as well as a patio with a pergola, water features and breath-taking city views. A chef’s table in the kitchen hosts an elaborate five-, seven- 14- and 21-course tasting menu.

As you arrive, sip a glass of complimentary Champagne and settle in with the menu. Locals might spot callouts to previous tenants, such as a new version of VegiTerranean’s artichokes — grilled long-stemmed artichokes drizzled with lemon tarragon aioli. Also spot DBA’s Hong Kong mussels with crab, as well as other mussels with spicy Arrabbiata sauce or white wine and capers.

Find Testa’s grandmother’s wedding and pastina soups and meatball. Try sauteed calamari served with Arrabbiata. The burrata with charred eggplant, pomegranates, walnuts and cilantro provides a unique bite. Those who order the charcuterie plate are in for a surprise as a staffer freshly shaves prosciutto tableside.

Choose from six salads, including arugula and blood orange or the Italian chopped salad, with romaine, pepperoncini, focaccia croutons and more. The four flatbreads are named after Testa’s kids, including Zoe ($20), which features arugula, prosciutto, goat cheese, truffle oil, honey and a balsamic reduction.

“They’re done with focaccia bread that we make,” Testa says. “It’s a heartier, saltier, fluffier taste.”

Enjoy house-made pasta creations or choose a type of pasta and customize it with your pick of sauce, such as pesto, vodka or more. The cacio e pepe Parmigiano-Reggiano wheel bucatini ($25) provides a show.

“We bring it out in a saute pan with our sauce and then we put a 151 on the cheese wheel, light it on fire, and it burns. As it burns, it melts the cheese. Then we mix the pasta in the Parmesan wheel that picks up the Parmesan cheese on the pasta,” Testa says. “What we’re embracing everywhere is the experience. … It should be something that you’re like, Wow!”

Dig into heartier dishes too, such as the 14-ounce veal tomahawk ($55) served with sauteed broccolini and topped with burrata and a sauce cooks make by roasting heirloom tomatoes over an open flame and pureeing them with herbs and garlic.

“You have the crispiness of the broccolini, then you have the meatiness or tenderness of the veal chop, but the burrata gives it a creamy element,” Hinman says.

The menu also showcases seafood inspired by Italy’s coastal cuisine, including the scallops ($35), another callout to DBA. The dish includes curled Israeli couscous, grilled fennel, sweet potato, a blood orange beurre blanc and U15 diver scallops basted in butter, rosemary and thyme.

“They get that nice char, nice seared outside and super tender on the inside,” Hinman says. “To complement the soft textures, we do the crispy prosciutto to give it that salty, crispy aspect and then blood orange served with that, which is brighter red around the outside of the plate — this gives it a little bit of a crisp citrus flavor.”

Pair your meal with a handcrafted cocktail, such as the Sage Advice with Effen cucumber vodka and a swirled cucumber garnish, Lavender Scape with Empress gin and a charred rosemary garnish or the Nutty professor with Buffalo Trace bourbon and frothy egg whites.

Finish your meal with shareable cannoli dip and a dessert cocktail like the tiramisu martini with French vanilla vodka and a ladyfinger or the pistachio gelato martini with double chocolate vodka and a pistachio garnish.

Around the restaurant, find quotes about food, love and art. Luciano’s aims to combine these elements to create an authentic, elevated meal.

“If you are passionate about it, that passion comes out on the plate,” Testa says. “That’s how we share our love.”

21 Furnace St., Suite 402, Akron, 330-808-7670, lucianos.xyz