The Place: In the former Calamari space on the quiet end of the Main Highway in Coconut Grove, Spasso is a sprawling restaurant with white tablecloths, a bar, a long open kitchen and a patio with a fountain, hanging potted ferns and a huge oak tree strung with twinkly lights. Spasso means enjoyment, amusement and entertainment, and folks come for housemade pastas and stone-fired thin crust pizza.
The History: Owner and Chef Gaetano Asciono, from Salerno near Naples, graduated from the Instituto Albberghiero di Stato, a government-run culinary school in his hometown. He then worked as a chef in Italy, Germany, England, Korea, Singapore, South Africa and the Bahamas and is still involved with his restaurant Gioco in Chicago. The chef spent 16 years in Singapore, where he bribed the principals of his children’s schools with what he calls “the power of cheesecake” to avoid years-long waiting lists to get them in. In Singapore he ran the Mandarin Marina and opened Gaetano Italian restaurant in Chinatown; La Stella (named after artist Frank Stella, who helped open a print institute in Singapore with printmaker Ken Tyler); and Madam Wong above a disco. He came to Miami in 2007 to visit relatives, stayed and did restaurant consulting and also opened Gaetano in Coral Gables (now shuttered). He opened Spasso last February.
