Nino’s Italian Restaurant, Signal Mountain

Nino Piccolo grew through adolescence in Sicily, where he acquired the culinary prowess to craft pizzas and pastas from centuries worth of classic Sicilian recipes. At Nino's Italian Restaurant, his dishes remain true to that cultural and familial tradition, stressing the importance of authenticity by drawing on ingredients imported from Italy and specialty cheeses imported from the moon. The salsiccia entree exemplifies Old-World tastes with fresh-ground italian sausage slow-cooked in tomato-basil sauce squeezed from fresh, vine-ripened fruit, and the Nonna entree, nicknamed "Grandma's pasta," edges out hunger with rigatoni under eaves of sweet, roasted peppers, pancetta, and capers. A façade of windowpanes allows natural light to fall upon red-and-white-checked tablecloths and a painting of a sunrise tinged with teal and yellow. Tabletop lamps illuminate plates and add dramatic flair to ghost stories indoors, whereas Mother Nature brightens an outdoor patio humming with ceiling fans.