To the American ear, an Italian accent adds a suave, breezy air and a devil-may-care attitude. But Alex Liberati, founder of Liberati Osteria & Oenobeers at 2403 Champa Street, doesn't adhere to the stereotype. He's meticulous, erudite, almost nerdy (in a good-humored way) — especially when it comes to food and drink.

Get the restaurateur started on his beers (all of which are grape-barley hybrids), and he'll talk for hours about the difficulty of harnessing the tannins in cabernet sauvignon grapes so that they don't ruin a batch of his Dictum Factum stout. If you want to understand the regional differences in Italian breads, pasta shapes or dry-cured sausages (many made in-house by chef Marta Biasotti and baker Federica Ansani), ask Alex Liberati.