Shewolf’s Anthony Lombardo

Wants to bring you the real Italy

SheWolf Chef Anthony Lombardo won’t say which Italian restaurants in the region he considers the absolute worst. But it’s safe to say that if chicken parm is on the menu, it makes his list.

“They don’t eat chicken in Italy,” Lombardo insists. “Some places will have a little chicken here, a little chicken there. Butcher shops will have it. But we don’t serve chicken.”

Lombardo’s ancestors hailed from Sicily and Abruzzo. He has lived and trained as a chef all over Italy, living in eight different places and visiting every region. His vision for SheWolf is to educate Americans about the diversity and authenticity of Italian cuisine. He’s fairly horrified by what passes as Italian food in America.

“It’s to a point where now you can’t even recognize some of these dishes at Italian restaurants,” he says. “An Italian person would come over and be, like, ‘What is it? What’s happening?’”

“We want to get people away from what they know of as Italian-American and more into knowing the different regions—knowing the difference between north and south,” he says. “It’s less about the Italian-American food that a lot of metro Detroit grew up on and thinks of as Italian.”

Lombardo jokes about the situation in his comedy routine, which he does as a way to blow off steam. You might find him at an amateur live mic night railing on Italian-American restaurants and culture.

SheWolf takes its inspiration from all over Italy—the menu features Sicilian caponata (a cold eggplant salad) alongside a Calabrian preparation of rapini, a leafy vegetable in the broccoli family. The menu is organized as it would be in Italy with antipasti, pasta and secondi—the main dish. Portions are spare.

The pasta, made on-site behind glass in full view of customers, is a main attraction. Options range from classic pastas like the Roman all’amatriciana (featuring guanciale, San Marzano organic tomatoes and Pecorino Romano cheese) and cacio e pepe (tonnarelli, Pecorino Romano, with a peppercorn blend) to conchiglie (shells) stuffed with ricotta and mushrooms.

Lombardo credits his interest in food to his upbringing in Sterling Heights, where he witnessed a diversity of ethnicities in his neighborhood.

“I was always around different ethnic foods, and that kind of really got me interested in food at an early age,” he says. “Seeing all my friends and how other families approach cuisine versus how my family approaches cuisine got me super-interested.”

Cold Frame Farm in Romeo is Lombardo’s most important supplier. Staff visit the farm twice a year to observe produce as it grows and connect with farmers Lisa and Matt Jaroch, who help plant and maintain an herb-and-vegetable garden in a planter on Selden Street in front of SheWolf. Cold frames—low, enclosed beds with transparent tops—also draw on Italian heritage, dating back to ancient Rome. The frames allow for cultivation and harvesting across seasons.

Lombardo managed to survive the year with SheWolf Mercato, a wine-and-food subscription box service, but he always looked forward to getting back in the kitchen to serve diners in-house and the lists of upcoming produce offerings he gets from local farmers to help spark inspiration.

“That’s what gets you amped,” he says. “It’s getting emails from vendors that get the juices flowing.”

Learn more at shewolfdetroit.com