Photo by Tamra Santana
Photo by Tamra Santana
Photo by Tamra SantanaAt La Magnolia Trattoria Italiana, customers are treated like family and owner Genc Krasniqi goes out of his way to ensure diners enjoy their experience.
"I have some customers who say, 'We've had everything. What should I order?" said Krasniqi. "I say, 'Close the menu. Tell me what you like. Pick a pasta, pick a sauce, pick the vegetables you want with it, and I will make it special."
La Magnolia emphasizes fresh ingredients, including homemade sauces and dough. The restaurant's marinara is made with 14 different herbs and three types of tomatoes—fancy grape, ground tomatoes and whole peeled tomatoes—and is slow cooked for 26 hours. The restaurant also serves traditional Sicilian-style garlic rolls, called knots, with olive oil and herbs.
Krasniqi learned to make Italian food while working for an Italian family at their New York-based restaurant. He inherited their authentic recipes. After moving to Texas, Krasniqi changed a few ingredients in some of the recipes to adjust to southern-style cooking, including making the sauces less tangy and the marinara sauce sweeter, he said. He removed 20 percent of the vinegar to the house salad dressing, a tomato-based vinaigrette.
