I’m usually very ho hum when a new Italian restaurant opens in San Miguel de Allende. We’ve already got at least five good ones. And we’ve already got a lot of overlap in the dishes they’re putting on tables.

But the latest one had me intrigued. It’s called Risi & Bisi and I was puzzled why a restaurant would call itself Risi & Bisi. Nice logo, I thought, but how many people would even be able to translate the words. Even fully fledged foodies may not be familiar with what rici & bisi is.

So an explanation: Risi & bisi translates as rice and peas. Risi e bisi is a classic Northern Italian dish and, more specifically, a dish closely linked to Venice. The simple description is to call it a soupy risotto, so soupy that it’s usually eaten with a spoon not a fork. A more detailed description would tell you risi e bisi is cooked in chicken stock, the best versions (in my opinion and probably yours) include prosciutto or pancetta, and it’s almost always topped with parmesan.

But why would you name your restaurant after something Venetian? That question was answered on my first visit. The family that owns Risi & Bisi…Giovanni Tosato, his wife and the restaurant’s chef Erika, and her parents Augusto and Renata Ziglio…are from Venice, as is the cuisine they’re serving. And how rare is it to find a Venetian restaurant in San Miguel? I’ll give you one stat; Trip Advisor lists 962 Italian restaurants in my second home, Toronto. Not one of them, to my knowledge, specializes in Venetian cuisine.

Last week, The Gentlemen Who Lunch were packed in like sardines (the restaurant only seats a breathe in tight 20) for their weekly cerebral symposium at Risi & Bisi. I asked Giovanni Tosato if he would like to feed us a very typical Venetian lunch. Giovanni said he would be proud to.

When I think of Cucina Veneziana, I think of a few things. Two that are top of mind are polenta and sopressa. Both of them were on the plate for the first course.

Ben Penman said, “From a guy who doesn’t really like polenta, this is one fine polenta.”

The moist and flaky slice of cornmeal was topped with Asiago cheese (so much better than Mozzarella) and a slice of sopressa, the dried sausage from Venice that is traditionally pressed between two boards and has lots of fat and lots of pepper (which are good things).

“When the stars make you drool just like a pasta fazool
That’s amore”

It was Dean Martin who I first heard sing the joys of pasta and bean soup. It’s a dish that’s not just Venice’s, not just Italy’s, but one of the world’s best comfort foods. Erika Tosato’s version, which she called pasta e fasoi was particularly hearty with lots of chunks of ham.

“Imagine how much you could drink with this lining your stomach”, said Walter Lewis.

Risi & Bisi is very much a family run restaurant. You’ll not only see Giovanni and Erika and her parents but, often, you’ll see them stepping around daughter Emma. But why a family with a young child would choose to emigrate to San Miguel remains mostly a mystery.

San Miguel is, like Venice, a Unesco world heritage site. We do have a lot of tourists. There is a bit of a glass industry. And, yes, we have a canal. But I can’t imagine ever seeing a gondolier punting down it singing “O Solo Mio”.

All Giovanni Tosato would tell me is, “We chose San Miguel de Allende because it fits a lot with the type of food we wanted to do and that we like. After Mexico City, it was the only city we considered.”

We stayed in the peasant food category with the next course for the gentlemen’s lunch, but this one I’d never heard of. Giovanni Tosato called it seppie in umido. I did a little googling and discovered that its full name is seppie in umido alla Veneta so it was definitely a Venetian dish. As an Adriatic port, seafood has always been an important component of Venetian cuisine, and this dish was the result of seppie or calamares historically being the cheapest frutti di mare you can buy. The squid would traditionally be stewed in onions, white wine and parsley.

In Erika Tostato’s version, the taste of the squid was not lost in the sauce and I didn’t hear a single reference to Goodyear or Firestone in the conversation about the texture of the tender tentacles.

Over the last couple of months, I’ve tried about six different mains at Risi & Bisi. The shrimp sautéed in brandy and mustard was superb. The oven roasted pork chop was moist and tender and came with potatoes imaginatively dusted with cumin.

The pasta with Serrano ham and saffron in a béchamel sauce was a great alternative to lasagna. The gnocchi, especially in the Gorgonzola and walnut sauce, was “the best I’ve ever had in San Miguel” according to Don Day’s Wife (and yes, we’ve been to La Parada).

Risi & Bisi is also a new challenger for the who makes the best pizza in SMA crown. Giovanni and Erika love their oven and I love the crust and toppings that are coming out of it.

At the gentlemen’s Venetian lunch we had one more course to go. Dessert.

Venice’s most famous dish didn’t even exist until the Sixties. But these days, you’d have a hard time finding a restaurant in Venice that doesn’t have tiramisu on the menu.

It’s also a fixture on Risi & Bisi’s menu and one of the best finales you could ever imagine to a meal.

“It’s long on the cream filling and short on the biscuit which is fine with me”, said Alan Gann.

There are usually at least six or seven desserts in the display case. My recommendation is definitely eat one and then definitely take another one home because Erika Tostato has already proven to me that she is one of San Miguel’s very best pastry chefs.

There’s no printed menu at Risi & Bisi. Instead there’s a menu del dia on a blackboard that changes a little (but not a lot) every day. I’ve been working my way up, down and back up the board again. It’s nice work if you can get it.

Another thing that needs to be said about Risi & Bisi. The price. Take a look at that recent bill. $1080 for eight people. That is outstanding value on its own. Then factor in that you can bring your own wine (the restaurant is unlicensed) without any corkage fee and the outstanding value becomes amazing value.

I think Risi & Bisi has made a dazzling debut in San Miguel. It’s taken me a while to write about it for one reason. I’m a little afraid there won’t be room for me any more. Please, please, save me a chair.

Risi & Bisi is located at Hidalgo 37 in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. The restaurant is open from Noon to 8:30 pm, every day but Monday.