ABOUT

At Osteria Stella

Owners Jessica “Rabbit” King and Aaron Thompson are pioneering Knoxville’s first restaurant to recreate Northern Italian cuisine through the lens of authenticity of Chef Amalia Brusati, a consulting chef who recently arrived from Italy’s fashion and design capital. Chef Amalia’s dishes are simple and rustic, with many having only five ingredients. Her recipes were handed down by her family, which she polished with techniques mastered at Milan’s culinary academy. All pastas and breads are produced in house. The kitchen uses top quality ingredients, both imported from Italy and locally sourced. Osteria Stella is a love letter to their baby daughter, Stella, who celebrated her first birthday on the restaurant’s opening night.

Consulting Milanese Chef Amalia Brusati and Chef de Cuisine John Hasentufel, Sous Chef’s Logan Kuchinic and Ryan Bolton at Osteria Stella have collaborated to execute this vision, expressing traditions from Amalia’s home to the highest culinary standards, and with a shared love for local produce. Everything from stocks, to pasta, to the ladyfingers in the tiramisu are made lovingly in-house.

Wine List

Curated by Thompson, the wine list of 200+ bottles is the most comprehensive in Knoxville for Italian wine and perhaps in all of Tennessee. Thompson favors family-owned wineries that produce less than 100,000 cases, and in most instances, under 20,000, with female-led operations spotlighted, where possible.

The wine list represents a definitive selection of producers representing all 20 of Italy’s regions.

GALLERY