It's always tricky to find good restaurants to book on Sunday and Monday evenings. A lot of higher end restaurants choose to close those days, yet oftentimes we are in a city for just a weekend, and thus finding a place to eat on Sunday day is a real issue.
We were thrilled that Impronte told us they were open on Sunday night. It wasn't until we arrived that we realized they had opened the restaurant for us.
Apparently most Italians have go out for lunch with their families on Sundays, not dinner. So, there wasn't another soul in the restaurant. We had the whole place to ourselves!
On the one hand, it's nice to have a quiet restaurant in which to talk. The service was attentive, no doubt, since there were no other guests around. On the other hand, it is a bit weird to be the only guests in the restaurant. It's almost a bit too quiet . . . and you know that the whole team is there just for you, so there's almost a sense of guilt at the end of the night when we stayed a bit later. Are we preventing the staff from going home early?
Nevertheless, we had a great time and really enjoyed our meal at Impronte. We're so glad they were willing to open, even if just to serve us.
Impronte has one Michelin star. Chef Cristian Fagone and his wife Francesca Mauri (front of the house) run the place. The food is influenced both by Chef Fagone's Sicilian roots and his Venetian professional training. There's a strong focus on seafood, and Chef Fagone is especially interested in exploring smoke and acid, as well as experimenting with flavors such as bitter and sour.
The Bread Course
We began with a delicious house-made bread and grissini (bread sticks).
Crudo & More
"Noodles"
White Truffles!
Ah, and then the intense fragrance of white truffles wafted towards us.
Cheese + Dessert
We ended with an assortment of Italian cheeses.
Dessert was not too heavy, which was nice.
Frozen grapes brings me back to my childhood, when we would eat these as kids. Chef provides an assortment of small bites for us to end this meal.
General Thoughts - Impronte Bergamo
Impronte has a huge crudo selection, and it was fun to try so many different types of seafood. We were also tempted by the white truffles that were in season, and thus ordered some basic, traditional, simple dishes to highlight the white truffles.
However, as a result of ordering a lot of simpler dishes, we didn't get to experience the Chef Cristian Fagone's own creativity as much. The few "creative" dishes that we did try, such as the uni pasta or the squid noodles, were excellent. I was indeed impressed by those dishes, and would be very interested to try more dishes from the chef.
If I do go back to Bergamo, I would love to return to this restaurant and try one of their normal tasting menus.
Impronte Bergamo
via Cristoforo Baioni 38
Bergamo, 24123, Italy
Closed Tuesdays. Only open for lunch on Sat/Sun (but you can always ask!)
