Archived Article By Tom Fitzmorris Originally published February 19, 2007 Taste Buds Take Over Semolina Again As of January, the founders of Semolina once again own the chain of pasta restaurants that they sold to a restaurant management corporation about six years ago. The interim was not good for Semolina. The first sign of trouble was when they decided to build their famous annual crawfish menu around Cinese crawfish, instead of the local product. Then the consistency began to get tattered, and the restaurants became iffy at best. Gary Darling, Hans Limberg, and Greg Reggio--who call themselves The Taste Buds--created Zea after departing Semolina. They resumed management of Semolina about a year ago. The actual purchase of the chain of five local units (there are also franchisees elsewhere) took a little longer. One of the first upshots of the return of the Buds was a re-tooling of the concept. The prototype is Semolina Bistro Italia, a conversion of the existing Semolina on Magazine Street. The menu there kept the best of Semolina's international pasta dishes, replacing others with dishes with deeper roots in the Italian cooking tradition. While they say that not all the Semolinas will pick up the Bistro Italia concept, at least one has. The Covington restaurant (the very first Semolina) has shut down, replaced by a new Semolina Bistro Italia in a nearby strip mall. This is very good news. During the original hegemony of the buds at Semolina, the restaurants bordered on terrific. It's been a long fall, and may of us miss it as an acceptable dining option. And that Bistro Italia menu is very good. © 2007 Tom Fitzmorris. All rights reserved. news@nomenu.com