never have developed his cooking skills. Had Juri been able to envision a satisfying career utilizing his degree in history, he may never have taken his burgeoning talent seriously. Were his future wife, Kin- ley, an American art school grad traveling in Italy, not wooed by Juri’s food without either speaking the other’s language, and had she not encouraged him to try cooking professionally... And if they hadn’t decided to start fresh in the U.S., knowing that the Italian system would make it difficult for an academic to break into the culinary world... And if they hadn’t chosen Bend, a town where neither had ever lived… But that’s exactly how it went. In 2009, after cook-


ing as a personal chef team in and around Central Oregon for five years and amassing a substantial following, Juri and Kinley were approached by in- vestors and asked to open a restaurant in a cozy spot formerly occupied by La Rosa at the bottom of College Way. So with Juri having no formal training


Trattoria Sbandati


2011 Restaurant of the Year by Alice Finer


The more you learn about how Trattoria Sbandati came to be—let alone be in Bend, Oregon—let alone be named the 2011 Source Weekly Restaurant


of the Year—the less likely it seems that it happened. If Juri Sbandati, as a doctoral student in Italy, hadn’t done some catering to make extra money, he might


Had Juri been able to envision a satisfying career utilizing his degree in history, he may never have taken his burgeoning talent seriously.


and never having even worked in a restaurant, let alone having owned one, less than two years later, here they are. Also implausible is that his old-world approach suc-


ceeded. In an era of instant, have-it-your-way gratifi- cation, when recession-conscious entrepreneurs are often opting for high-volume/low-cost menus or small plates that you can mix and match, Trattoria Sban- dati began with a prix-fixe four-course single seating three nights a week served in the Tuscan style—slow, intimate and entirely orchestrated by the maestro in the kitchen. In an environment where diners are in- creasingly demanding dishes tailored to their own di- etary restrictions and “foodies” spend more time cri- tiquing their food than actually tasting it, Juri brought


4


ELENA PRESSPRICH


NATHAN BOBEY


ELENA PRESSPRICH


ELENA PRESSPRICH


NATHAN BOBEY


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