The Big Ragu

The first thing you notice when you walk into the Corso Italia dining hotspot, the Big Ragu, is the delicious aroma wafting from the cozy restaurant’s open kitchen. The scents of Italian cuisine — fresh tomato sauce, roasted lamb, grilled calamari — fill the air of the gently lit dining room. The restaurant’s 13 tables are each covered in adorably kitsch red-and-white checkered tablecloths, and they fill up quickly at dinnertime.

The Big Ragu’s modest size is a good thing: it means you’ll likely get some personal attention from the owner, Jan Pradhan, who likes to greet his customers with a small plate of complimentary eggplant parmigiana or goat cheese and roasted red pepper crostini. And if he doesn’t greet you at the door, it’s not hard to guess where Jan is. “My customers know that they’ll find me cooking in the back,” he says with a hearty laugh.