Osteria

The story

Crafted with passion, served with love

A Philadelphia Institution Built on Northern Italian Craft

Since opening in 2007, Osteria has earned a place among the country's most critically acclaimed Italian restaurants. The recognition is well-documented: chef Jeff Michaud took home the James Beard Foundation Award for "Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic" in 2010, and the restaurant's wine program has earned Wine Spectator's Best of Award of Excellence as recently as 2025. These aren't incidental accolades — they reflect a kitchen and cellar that have stayed disciplined and ambitious for nearly two decades.

Jeff Michaud and the Northern Italian Foundation

Michaud's path to Philadelphia ran through Bergamo, Lombardia. After graduating from the Culinary Institute of America and working as sous chef at Ristorante Vetri, he spent three years cooking his way through the top restaurants of northern Italy — including Michelin-starred Frosio and La Brughiera — before serving as executive chef at a small inn in the foothills of the Alps. That immersion shapes everything at Osteria. The kitchen runs a wood-burning grill and a custom-made brick oven, and the menus rotate with the seasons, anchored by traditional northern Italian techniques.

Day-to-day cooking is led by Executive Chef and Partner Matthew Arcomone, who trained at ALMA in Parma — the school founded by Gualtiero Marchesi — and whose focus is authentic regional Italian cuisine rendered with what he calls a nonna sensibility: the comfort of a grandmother's kitchen, executed with precision. Pastry Chef Jeremy Intille rounds out the kitchen with desserts that draw on a wide-ranging career spanning Portland, Paris, and Brooklyn.

The Menu

Signature dishes have remained touchstones across the years. The Chicken Liver Rigatoni — cipollini onion, sage — is the kind of dish that defines a restaurant's identity. Hand-made pastas appear throughout the menu in forms like Francobolli Ravioli with robiola and trumpet mushroom, Tortelli filled with sheep's milk ricotta and braised baby artichoke, and Whole Wheat Pappardelle with guinea hen ragù and caramelized peaches. From the brick oven come pizzas ranging from a classic Margherita to the Siciliano, topped with slow-roasted lamb, peperoncino, and smoked ricotta. Secondi lean on the wood-fired grill: whole branzino with preserved lemon, spit-roasted lamb shoulder, and wood-fired half chicken all make the case for live-fire cooking done with restraint.

The Space and the Wine

Osteria's dining room was designed to feel warm despite its industrial bones — spacious enough for a celebration, comfortable enough for a quiet weeknight dinner. A glass-enclosed patio, private dining rooms, and a chef's table give the space real range. The wine list, honored repeatedly by Wine Spectator, is focused on Italian regions with the depth you'd expect from a restaurant that takes its northern Italian identity seriously: Piedmont, Friuli, Sicily, Sardinia, and beyond, available by the glass or from a dedicated Riserva list.

Martin Cugine, co-owner and longtime hospitality professional, brings a front-of-house sensibility shaped by years in Philadelphia, San Francisco, and New York. His partnership with Michaud gives Osteria the rare combination of a kitchen with a clear point of view and a dining room that knows how to make people feel at home.