Da Giocondo

Arrosticini at the center of the grill

Arrosticini hold the center of the grill while Chris Cullum, chef at Da Giocondo in Rivisondoli, keeps the kitchen close to Abruzzi practice. The work here is not built around display. It sits in the repetitions of a family-run trattoria in the historic upper village, where pasta, grilled meat, polenta, beans, mushrooms, sausage, pecorino, and local wine carry the room without needing a tasting-menu frame. Cullum’s own path began with the labor behind service: the dining room first, then the cleaned-down kitchen, then the decision to make restaurants his work. At Da Giocondo that early lesson shows in the steadiness of the station. The menu holds arrosticini as a fixed point, not a regional token; daily specials move with the season, and the house-made pastas keep their own names. The restaurant has worked in this Abruzzese register for over 30 years, with the family’s hand still shaping the kitchen and the dining room. Michelin gave Da Giocondo a Bib Gourmand in 2024, 2025, and 2026, recognition tied to this address and to its consistency rather than to polish added from outside.

Pasta names, mountain appetite

The method is direct: hand-rolled pasta, slow-braised sauces, grilled skewers, polenta built for cold air and long walks above the town. Cazzarielli with beans reads differently from tagliatelle al ragù bianco, and chestnut gnocchi with porcini mushrooms carries the season more clearly than any explanation of seasonality could. Polenta arrives with sausage and broccoli; pecorino and honey, cured meats, black pig, and sliced pork keep the meal close to the mountain pantry. The kitchen works à la carte and family style, with specials spoken at the table, so the structure stays loose while the discipline remains firm. The wine program follows the same restraint. The list is short, regional, and built around Abruzzo, with bottles and house wine chosen to sit beside lamb, mushrooms, beans, and cheese rather than compete with them. The restaurant is not trying to turn the trattoria into a stage. It lets the bench work stay visible in the plate.

The room above the village

The room feels held rather than decorated. Rustic wood, warm light, close tables, and the bend of the alley outside put the restaurant inside the old village before a plate reaches the table. Service has the rhythm of a family house: the dining room reads the table, the kitchen sends what the season allows, and conversation stays at a level where the next course can still be heard. This is the useful scale for Da Giocondo. The counter, the pass, and the room sit near enough to one another that the work does not disappear into formality. A plate of arrosticini can move through the room without ceremony and still carry the place with it. In Rivisondoli, that is the point of Da Giocondo: mountain cooking, kept close to the hands, ending at the table with cazzarielli with beans.