Agas V'Tapuach

About

Pera e Mela 6 Kikar Safra, facing Jaffa Road Shivtei Yisrael (if coming by car) Phone -- 02 623-0280 Hours-- Sunday through Thursday, 11 a.m. -- 10 p.m. Friday-- closed Saturday evening--one hour after Shabbat ends until last customer Kashrut--Rabinute Jerusalem Mehedrin and OU Mededrin Shmita- nochree Eccezionale (exceptional), magnifico (magnificent), superbo (superb) best describe the 30 years that Miriam and Gionatan Ottolenghi have been serving authentic Italian cuisine in Jerusalem. Gionatan Ottolenghi grew up in Milan, was a chazzan and came to Israel in 1976. Miriam Sestiera grew up in Rome and came to Israel after high school. They met and married, farmed in the Golan Heights and moved to Jerusalem in 1984. Gionatan was looking for something to do and decided to open a restaurant with some partners. Their first restaurants were in the Khan theatre building (which closed in 1994) and on Maalot Street (which closed in 2007). In 1999, they moved to their current location on Safra Square. The building was once the home of a banker; it was a hotel; it held the offices of Henrietta Szold, the US Zionist leader and founder of Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America; and it also held the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School labs from the 1950s to the 1980s. Why does this building suit the Italian restaurant? You enter Agas ve tapuach through a small room with stone walls. A bookcase holds decorative apples and pears. To the right is the bar room with 15 chairs at wooden tables. The kitchen is to the left of this room; to the right of the entrance is a room divided by a pillar; there are seats for 56. The floors are tile, windows are arched, the stone walls are painted and adorned with paintings. For al fresco dining, outside are tables and chairs for 20. Our hostess was co-owner, Miriam, who told us for the month of June, restaurants around the country are celebrating a Gluten Free Festival, and Agas ve tapuach is listed in the Hebrew booklet as