I had just returned from a trip to Italy when my friend texted to suggest we visit a new Italian restaurant across from the University of New Mexico that he had heard good things about. Having spent the previous two weeks plowing through plates of pasta and scoops of gelato, I was more than a little reluctant to revisit Italian cuisine so quickly after my return.

What a surprise, then, that I enjoyed dinner at the restaurant, Il Localetto Rossi, so much that I went back to it a few days later for lunch. Il Localetto Rossi was launched near UNM in early April by a team of chefs with years of experience at Italian restaurants.