Bologna Italy
Modena’s historic square and tower. Photo by Harrison Shiels

Lunch is very important in Italian culture, and the Emilia-Romagna region is lauded for cuisine. Ristorante Cavallino’s menu displays a vintage photo of founder Enzo Ferrari, feeding one of his executives in the restaurant’s dining room

As a journalist who has covered the automotive industry and worked in media relations for General Motors in Detroit – home to the “Big Three” car companies and birthplace of assembly line manufacturing – I have heard some stories and seen some myself. (Ford Motor Company and the Chrysler Corporation round out the historic “Big Three.”)

During the noon hour, I was walking through the yawning, main-level food court in the atrium concourse area of Detroit’s iconic Renaissance Center complex of high-rise buildings, one of which housed General Motors Headquarters.

My grey-bearded, old-school General Motors mid-level boss I was strolling with, Ed Lechtzin, suddenly stopped in his tracks and grabbed my arm.

“What is it, Ed?” I asked.

“Look. Look at that,” he said. He pointed me toward people waiting to order gyros at a Greek food kiosk counter.

I shrugged and asked what he was riled up about.

Lechtzin answered, “That’s John Middlebrook himself…standing in line for his own sandwich.”

Middlebrook was the president of the company’s Chevrolet division. Lechtzin was startled that a division president had to fetch his brown-bag lunch in a city like Detroit, where automotive executives had always been regarded as baronial royalty. 

Cavallino’s historic hospitality
Cavallino’s historic hospitality. Photo by Harrison Shiels

Henry Ford II’s Hamburgers

Henry Ford II, known as “Hank the Deuce,” was automotive royalty. He lorded over the company his father founded from his office atop “Glass House.” The green, high-rise headquarters building in Dearborn sits just outside Detroit.

I doubt he had “royal tasters.” But Ford did have his lunch brought to his desk each day: a delicious hamburger delivered from Ford’s basement employee cafeteria.

The longstanding lunch routine was broken one day, however, when, for whatever random reason, “Hank the Deuce” found himself downstairs at noon. The titan went into the cafeteria and handed himself a burger from the buffet. But Ford was surprised to find the burger tasted different.

The hamburger was nothing like the beef on buns brought upstairs to his office regularly. That’s when Henry II discovered, as heir to the Ford Motor Company, commissary cooks catering his lunch specially prepared the CEO’s cheeseburger in paradise. They ground a steak through a meat grinder rather than using typical ground chuck hamburger beef.

HQ’s historical front gate in Maranello
HQ’s historical front gate in Maranello. Photo by Harrison Shiels

In 2012, a Ford-licensed restaurant called “Ford’s Garage” opened in Fort Myers, Florida. It was less than a mile from Henry Ford’s winter home. The casual, “burger and brew joint” pays tribute to the automaker.

Servers wear nostalgic auto shop uniforms. The wheels of a replica Ford Model-T car spin as the antique vehicle hangs over the bar and occasionally “backfires.” Napkins are held together by hose clamps used in engines. Onion rings come piled around the nozzle of a gas pump, and the Ford “blue oval” logo is branded on the top bun of each burger.

There are now 25 Ford’s Garage restaurants in six states – including one in Dearborn, Michigan, near Ford Headquarters.   

Feast at Ferrari Headquarters and Museum Near Bologna, Italy

Ristorante Cavallino’s enclave entrance
Ristorante Cavallino’s enclave entrance. Photo by Harrison Shiels

One typically does not have high expectations when dining in a museum’s restaurant or a corporate commissary. But Enzo Ferrari created a canteen for himself and the founding executives of his Italian car company in 1950.

Now, in the modern era, an acclaimed gourmet chef, Modena’s own Massimo Bottura, and his protégé Ricardo Forapani are manufacturing the menu’s offerings. The doors are open to the public. Step on the gas to get to Ferrari’s Ristorante Cavallino, and loosen your seatbelt when you get to your table.

Ristorante Cavallino, managed by Luiz Diaz (once awarded Italy’s best young maître d, is near the Ferrari Museum, but is no concession stand.

Sausage with style
Sausage with style. Photo by Harrison Shiels

Operated by the Francescana family, the tasteful indoor/outdoor restaurant’s Ferrari horse logo (“Cavallino” translates to “little horse”) makes this gourmet experience immediately recognizable as the “Ferrari of dining experiences.”

Ferrari’s artistic “Prancing Horse” logo silhouette is sometimes prominent and sometimes subtle, such as when embroidered into Cavallino’s curtains.  

Ristorante Cavallino is just across from the Ferrari headquarters and factory, which is its own “Citarella:” a small village, technically in Maranello, Italy, just outside Bologna.

Passing under the shaded, leafy patio and entering this enclave of a ristorante, I realized Cavallino, with some historical photos themed to honor its Ferrari legacy, is not a Planet Hollywood/Hard Rock Café-style kitsch kitchen.

Cavallino is more like a cucina club. It is subtly warm and classically elegant, with splashes of “Ferrari red” and hints of visuals of the cars or engines.

Ferraris, and the Executive Dining Room, Have Evolved Over the Years

Elegant antipasti
Elegant antipasti. Photo by Harrison Shiels

Ferrari’s 1947 historical entrance, a Willie Wonka Factory-style gated archway through the orange office building, is across a little street from Ristorante Cavallino.

Inside, Ferrari’s campus includes the corporate offices, design center, paint shop, wind tunnel and test track. The assembly line factory buildings are more like clean, well-lit, partly robotic laboratories with assembly technicians worthy of gracing the cover of any Italian glamor magazine. The architecture of the buildings is fanciful and head-turning, like the vehicles. 

A few F-1 race winning Ferraris in its Maranello Museum.
A few F-1 race-winning Ferraris in its Maranello Museum. Photo by Harrison Shiels

Access inside the factory grounds is available via the Ferrari Museum next door. The museum displays Formula 1 race-winning cars, trophies and priceless custom Ferraris. Visitors also get a sneak peek at Ferraris of the future and a driving simulator.

“That beautiful car you are looking at is what I would describe as an ‘entry-level Ferrari,’” my museum guide explained. He schooled me that one does not just buy a Ferrari. With patience, a purchase places a Ferrari owner in a hierarchal society of lifetime enthusiasts who honor codes of conduct and culture as they trade-up to other models.

But Let’s Get Back to Lunch

Enzo Ferrari feeds a fellow executive.
Enzo Ferrari feeds a fellow executive. Photo by Harrison Shiels

Lunch is very important in Italian culture, and the Bologna region is lauded for cuisine.

Cavallino’s menu shows a vintage photo of founder Enzo Ferrari, feeding one of his executives in the restaurant’s dining room. One-of-a-kind dishes are plated as colorful and visually delicious as the gorgeous sportscars being handcrafted across the street and devoured by collectors.

I don’t want to ruin your surprises around every turn, but some of the chef’s culinary creations parked in front of me were deer tartare, Grasparossa grape, roasted beetroot and salmi sauce.

This was followed by handmade ravioli stuffed with pumpkin and foie gras, bitter almond and apple mustard, under an orange reduction with nutmeg. Tiny tortellini arrived snuggles inside a tart crust, and “intense,” 36-month aged, Parmigiano Reggiano was often used.

Culinary creations as stylish as cars
Culinary creations are as stylish as the cars. Photo by Harrison Shiels

Then came Quasi un risotto alla parmigiana e tartufo, with milk, buttermilk, wild blueberries and white truffle.

Depending on the season, you might also taste roasted woodpigeon, marinated chicory, pear, chocolate and Sichuan pepper jus. The traditional pork sausage alongside foie gras served with pan brioche, sour cherries and black truffle shards, like all the other menu items, was a visual work of art.  

I savored the vibrant flavors with a sensation similar to that which I felt when hearing, in my stomach, the purring, rumbling commanding sound of a Ferrari engine. I lubricated my taste buds with sips of locally produced 2021 sparkling Lambruscos – both white and red.

Deep Dive Into Ferrari’s Cars and Culture

Ferrari’s interactive museum in Modena.
Ferrari’s interactive museum in Modena. Photo by Harrison Shiels

You can feast on the entire Ferrari experience all day or even over a weekend. With a Ferrari Maranello Museum ticket, you can also book a Factory Panoramic Tour, during which a shuttle will drive you inside and through the factory complex, right up Viale Enzo Ferrari Drive and out to the Fiorano test track.

You can be shuttled or drive to the dazzling Enzo Ferrari Museum, 20 kilometers away in Modena.

Enzo was born in the brick building, and you can see his original office there, next to an additional stylish, modern museum building.

Enzo Ferrari’s birthplace and original workplace in Modena
Enzo Ferrari’s birthplace and original workplace in Modena. Photo by Harrison Shiels

Modena, a UNESCO World Heritage city, is an intriguing, authentic town and worth an overnight or more.

This entire Emilia-Romagna Region of northern Italy, between Venice and Florence, is anchored by Bologna and includes Parma, the walled village of Imola, and many culinary and medieval treasures, cities, villages, and castles.

You can also tour the Lamborghini, Maserati, and Ducati automotive operations. The annual “Motor Valley Fest” is in late May, preceded by the F-1 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix in Imola. Automobile HQ tours are in high demand, so reserve ahead – or plan via an expert, custom travel company such as ICBellagio.com and visit EmiliaRomagnaTurismo.com.

Read more of Michael Patrick’s work at The Travel Tattler and contact him at [email protected] Order his book Travel Tattler – Less Than Torrid Tales at https://amzn.to/3Qm9FjN

Michael Patrick Shiels

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