Parchetto

The story

Crafted with passion, served with love

Food From the Heart, in the Heart of Paso Robles

Parchetto — pronounced Par-kett-o, Italian for "Little Park" — takes its name from the Paso Robles Downtown City Park, and that sense of place runs through everything here. The restaurant is the vision of culinary partners Carole and Santos MacDonal, who spent 15 years building their reputation at Il Cortile Ristorante before opening Parchetto in July 2024. The space itself occupies a historic downtown building, its décor blending century-old restored elements with contemporary design that, as the team puts it, "exudes elegance without pretense."

The People Behind the Kitchen

Executive Chef Santos MacDonal trained under Chef Giorgio Baldi at the acclaimed Italian restaurant Giorgio in Malibu, then worked his way through respected Los Angeles kitchens — Via Veneto, Koi, La Sosta — before becoming Executive Chef at Bridge Restaurant and L'Angolo Cafe. His philosophy is direct: use the freshest ingredients, locally sourced whenever possible, and let them drive the menu. At Parchetto, that means drawing from nearby farms, local purveyors, and the garden he and Carole tend themselves.

Carole MacDonal, sommelier and restaurateur, brings a wine program that has already earned Parchetto the Wine Spectator Award of Excellence for 2025 — a meaningful distinction for a restaurant barely a year old. Her list spans Paso Robles estate wines alongside carefully chosen international selections, designed to move in step with Santos' cooking.

General Manager Brenda Jesmery Alcaraz grew up in the community and has been part of the MacDonalds' hospitality team since she was 18, bringing six years of front-of-house experience and a genuine investment in the guest experience.

California Bistro Cooking, Rooted in Italian Tradition

The menu sits at the intersection of Italian-American and California cuisine — a garden-to-table approach that shifts with the seasons. Dinner starters range from grilled octopus over tomato and pepper caponata, to seared scallops with sweet corn fonduta, to beef carpaccio with parmesan and capers. Mains lean on in-house dry-aged meats: a pork chop saltimbocca with parma prosciutto, sage, and caciocavallo cheese; lamb shank braised in red wine with lemon risotto; braised beef short ribs over mashed potatoes. Fish receives the same attention — pan-seared branzino with mushroom sauce, salmon with cherry tomato sauce.

Sunday brunch adds live jazz from 11am and a menu that moves between omelettes with homemade sausage and caciocavallo, crabcake benedict with fontina fonduta, and a spaghetti carbonara that reflects Santos' Italian roots. A mid-day menu runs Wednesday through Sunday for those who want something lighter — duck confit empanadas, tuna tartare, a grilled burger on brioche.

The cocktail list holds its own, built around fresh-squeezed juices and handmade syrups, with classics like the Old Fashioned alongside house originals. And there is one more detail worth noting: Carole and Santos planted an olive grove in 2019, with their first harvest in 2023 — the resulting Santino Olive Oil appears on the table, a small but telling expression of how personally invested this team is in what they serve.