Rome Goods

Hello, impending weekend. Hi, last waning days of warmth as fall sneaks up. Nice to see you, gigantic wraparound patio and Negronis. Looks like the whole gang’s here. Show some amore for Dolce Italian, a very large, very patio-forward house of pasta that you’re about to spend a lot of time in, opening tomorrow at Buckhead Atlanta. (It looks like this.) This place is grand in the way vast, wood-lined walls are grand. And in the way soft leather booths and white marble tables are grand. And specifically, in the way 28-day barrel-aged Negronis are grand. Time for a new word. And even though it’s an obvious home-run scenario for staying inside with a date and eating linguine with clams and veal piccata among old photos of beautiful bikini-clad Italians, you should stick to the patio for now. One side has café tables and a not-small tufted sofa. That’s where you’ll sit and look wistfully off into the sunset and talk about how you both love dogs and Mastroianni movies and you both hate empty Negroni glasses. The other side is even longer with more table room, more fading summer breezes and more opportunities for shared spicy-salami pizzas. There’s just more over there, is all we’re saying.