Lombardi's Neighborhood Italian

It's Garlic Festival time!

If you've never partaken in Lombardi's Garlic Festival, we're not sure where you've been. Lombardi's is a Northwest classic, opening in Ballard in 1987 (now closed). The garlic festival followed in 1988. Started as a weekend special, it included a garlic eating contest, cooking demos and an opera singer. Now it's an eight-week seasonal menu that focuses on a variety of different foods with more than a hint of garlic and, this year, wines from Castello Banfi from Montalcino in Tuscany.

As always, there's a story behind the event. Lombardi's owner, Diane Symms, has been in the food industry for 38 years. She started with a deli called Wild Strawberry in south Seattle. Her second place was the Roanoke Exit on Eastlake Avenue and then she started a pasta manufacturing business called Ribbons. In 1987, she opened a full-service restaurant concept she called Lombardi's.

Italian food was the "new" cuisine and there were no Italian restaurants in Ballard. The area was growing and Diane saw great potential in the busy corner space. "Everything above the first-floor ceiling was boarded up," recalls Kerri Lonergan, Diane's daughter. "We opened two floors. The building used to be the Ballard Hospital and the pharmacy is now the bar." Appropriate, really.

A success, they expanded to Issaquah in 1990. "Right before opening, there was a storm and the I90 bridge sank. We're very close to Issaquah Creek and the restaurant flooded," says Kerri. Despite the nearly disastrous opening, it was the right choice. "There was so much projected growth, we wanted to be there."

Issaquah dining room (above), Everett (below)

In 1998, they opened a third location: the waterfront in Everett. It's taken longer to build business there, but they are now doing well. "We knew the area had potential. Snohomish County was the fastest growing county in the state. But the Events Center took longer than anticipated to complete, there was 9/11 and Boeing layoffs that stunted growth for 2-3 years," explains Kerri.

Kerri worked with her mom at the deli when she was eight and summers during school years. She got her Business Administration degree from Central Washington University. Working for a bank for a year, she realized it wasn't for her. When personal computers were taking off, Diane wanted to computerize her system. Kerri helped part time, then full time. "I saw the business from a different perspective and developed a different attitude about my mom. I have a love of small business, having the opportunity to be more successful." She's been with Lombardi's ever since. Both she and Diane are involved with organizations that promote and lobby for small business. "We also give back to the communities that support us. It's a great opportunity to see what's right with the world as opposed to what's wrong."

Their festival was meant to be a mini Gilroy Garlic Festival and a way to set Lombardi's apart from competition. Over time, they realized it was really all about the food and dispensed with the contests and cooking demos to focus on seasonal foods and wine. "We run the regular menu plus the Garlic Festival menu," explains Executive Chef Matt Romeo. "The menu is different each year although a few things come back, like the crab and corn chowder. We've added a sampler to the appetizer list. Our bruschetta sampler on the regular menu is very popular, so we tweaked the idea for the Festival. We have two scallop items and our Angelica stuffed pork chop. That's an original recipe that we've never changed. You have to have an osso bucco on the menu, but we do it with lamb and a vegetarian broth with extra carrots to bring out the sweetness." Matt's vegetarian dish this year is truffle mac & cheese. "We added pancetta to it for an extra burst of flavor, but you can order it without the pancetta," he says.

Kerri Lonergan and Executive Chef Matt Romeo at the now closed Ballard location

Garlic desserts? "Garlic and sweet is tough to do," laughs Matt. "This year we're doing two desserts, one with garlic and one without. The apple crisp has roasted garlic and we pair it with vanilla gelato. We're also offering chocolate gelato with Amarena cherries. The cherries are cured without alcohol and are just delicious. We get our gelato from Figaro. It's the best I've had outside Italy."

Born and raised in New Jersey, Matt attended Johnson and Wales College of Culinary Arts in Rhode Island, graduating in 1992. A born traveler, he was on a road trip from New York to Alaska when he discovered Seattle, moving here in 1997. "My parents and sister followed. I'm now responsible for bringing 17 people here!" He started work at the Broadway Grill then, after another road trip, moved to Buongusto on Queen Anne, staying until it closed. In 2003, he started as Lombardi's Ballard chef and in 2005 became executive chef for all three locations.

"Over the past 6-7 years, we've gotten away from loading our food with garlic. Italians don't use a lot of garlic," explains Kerri. "Garlic has a lot of health benefits, but people also worry about their breath. When it comes to the Garlic Festival, we can ramp it up because people know what they're getting into. It's our same style of food with a focal point of garlic. And it's always best when shared!"

In 2006, they took a small group of managers to Italy to experience the food and wine, and spent a day at the Castello Banfi winery. They loved the wines and decided to focus on them during this year's Festival. They offer five wines by the glass or bottle and two estate wines by the bottle only. They also offer a red wine flight featuring two ounce pours of three reds. "Our wine pricing is very reasonable. We offer good value on the regular menu as well as our Festival menu," says Kerri. "We've opened Lombardi's Enoteca at all three locations so people can buy a select number of wines to take off premise. We like wines from Washington and Italy from lesser-known wineries that people can't pick up at the corner grocery."

When you're ready to "celebrate the romance of food, wine and garlic," head to Lombardi's. Just be sure to bring a friend.

Connie Adams/October 2008