LONGMEADOW – With white subway tiles lining the walls, floor-to-ceiling windows that allow sunlight to illuminate the room and a stunning bar that features a wine dispensing unit that offers a selection of unique wines, Posto is the place to be in Longmeadow.

Located in the former Bertucci’s building at The Longmeadow Shops, Posto, which is Italian for “place,” is breathing new life into the space. Co-owners of Agawam’s The Federal and West Hartford’s Vinted Wine Bar, Ralph Santaniello and Michael Presnal opened Posto on Oct. 1 to the public, welcoming patrons with their fresh brick oven pizzas, homemade pastas, and tempting, decadent desserts.

When Reminder Publishing spoke with Santaniello in December of 2018, just a few days after the lease was signed for the space with The Longmeadow Shops, the co-owner hoped that Posto would be open for business in May of this year. However, as Longmeadow Shops Marketing Manager Melissa Pevay joked to Reminder Publishing as they toured the completed space on Oct. 3, “If you’ve ever built a house – you know!” Referring to the five extra months it took to get Posto ready for business.

Santaniello explained the delay in opening, sharing that originally, they were planning on making only a few changes to the building.

“We weren’t going to do the level of construction, or build out, that we did. But once we started, it became clear that if we were going to do this, we really needed to do it the right way. We really needed to sort of tear it down and build it over,” Santaniello stated.

Though the build out may have taken more time than anticipated, it was well worth it. Posto now boasts a bigger bar, an updated kitchen and a renovated ceiling – all aspects that were not originally going to take place until the building process began.

“All in all it was the right decision. Ultimately we wanted to do something that we could be proud of. Our focus from the beginning was to build a neighborhood restaurant,” Santaniello said, further explaining that he wanted the restaurant to be fancy enough for a date night, but casual enough that a family could come in after soccer practice.

When asked how Posto compares to The Federal and Vinted Wine Bar, Santaniello noted that The Federal is “white tablecloth,” French inspired, and is fine dining. Posto on the other hand is more industrial. Yet if there’s one constant, Santaniello stated it’s co-owner Presnal’s food.

“Mike’s food is the through line of all three,” Santaniello said, commending Presnal’s cooking.

Speaking of the food – Posto boasts a list of “spuntini,” or snacks, including truffled popcorn, fried chickpeas and pistachios, and charred shishito peppers, as well as “antipasti,” or appetizers, including potato fried dough, wood oven roasted bone marrow and The Federal famous risotto balls. Santaniello explained that Posto highlights fresh, local, high-quality ingredients.

If you didn’t fill up on spuntini and antipasti, there is a insalate, or salad, list, a list of entrees including a mouthwatering wood oven roasted half chicken and grilled tuna, a pasta menu which boasts items such as bucatini and parmesan potato gnocchi, and a list of housemade, brick oven pizzas that can be donned with little neck clams, bacon, goat cheese, or plain ‘ole pepperoni.

“The Federal food is more complex and in depth. This is very typical Italian,” Santaniello said of the menu, reverting back to Posto’s tagline, “old school, new Italian.” As for his favorite menu items, Santaniello said he enjoys the half roast chicken as well as the pappardelle bolognese.

To top off your meal, Posto features four different desserts – one – a tiramisu sundae consisting of espresso gelato, chocolate rum sauce, mascarpone cream and lady finger crumble. And what is an Italian restaurant without a delectable cannoli? Posto offers a nutella cannoli, that boasts toasted salted hazelnuts and a hot chocolate sauce.

 “We made a conscious effort – you know, you can only do so much out of the kitchen with such high volume – so it’s only a few desserts, but they pack a big punch,” Santaniello said.

While the food shows stunning presentation and care, Posto did not skimp on their bar offerings. Santaniello shared with Reminder Publishing that he is a wine lover, and as part of this space, he wanted to make sure that Posto had a “great [wine] list with great value,” highlighting his desire to make sure that the list was unique.

“Italy has the most wines than any other region of the world, there are thousands of verialtials that are grown in Italy so I wanted to sort of bring that to this list and kind of explore the list, and not just [offer] the same old stuff,” Santaniello explained. He further noted that  their WineEmotion, a commercial wine dispenser that also preserves wine, allows Posto to offer wines by the glass that typically would be a buy the bottle purchase.

“There’s eight [wine bottles] in there; it allows people to have a glass of wine that they normally wouldn’t buy a bottle of. You might not spend the $80 on a bottle, but somebody might step up and spend a little bit more for a really nice glass of wine, and I think it’s a great value,” he explained. Santaniello said he wasn’t sure how people would respond to the WineEmotion machine, but so far, people “love it.”

“I had one guy – he drank the whole bottle out of [the machine],” Santaniello laughed. “He said ‘make sure you have this all the time because I can’t find this anywhere else,’ and I said ‘you could’ve bought the bottle!’ And he said, ‘no, it’s better by the glass!’ He likes it by the glass because it’s set at the perfect temperature.”

For those who may not be well versed in wine, Posto hired a beverage director, Lincoln, who can explain the different wines to customers if they have questions.

“The best way to sell wine in a restaurant is to not ‘cork–dork’ you to death; not nerd out to death, you know – telling you which side of the slope of the mountain on what day…” Santaniello trailed off. “Usually, somebody who wants to know that stuff knows about the wine already – they just want to talk about it. The best way is for [Lincoln] to find out what you like, and to find something on our list that translates to that.”

Santaniello explained that their wine list is a bit different than traditional wine lists, as they don’t separate their wines by variety, but by body.

“It’s progressive, it goes from lightest body to fullest body. Body of wine is like the weight in your mouth – so skim milk would be a light bodied wine, heavy cream would be a full bodied wine. As it gets thicker in the viscosity,” Santaniello shared. He noted that if a person traditionally likes pinot grigio but they want to try something different, on their list around the pinot grigio that the person may drink, there might be a couple of other wines that are in the “same ballpark.”

In addition to their wine list, Posto also has a beer list with brews on draft, bottles and cans, as well as a scotch and bourbon list. The restaurant proudly boasts a machine that makes “the perfect [ice] cube,” which is a one inch by one inch ice cube for drinks on the rocks.

“We wanted to really emphasize wine and our craft cocktails ...We’re doing a lot of in–house stuff, house blends, things like that. We take it very seriously,” Santaniello said of the cocktail list. “We have some drinks that they smoke, all kinds of techniques and stuff like that.”

Finally, Santaniello shared that Posto has an amaro list. “Amaro – it’s a slightly bitter liquor [that comes] usually after dinner in Italy. It’s gotten popular in the last couple years, even though they’ve been around...” Santaniello points to a bottle of liquor behind the bar that features an artichoke on the label, “That Cynar – with the artichoke on it – that’s been in everybody's bar for the last 100 years collecting dust,” and now they’re much more popular, he said. Restaurant-goers can do an amaro “flight,” meaning they can taste test three amaros.

Currently, Posto is open Monday through Thursday from 5 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday 5 p.m. to 11:30 p.m., and Sunday from 5 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. The location will be opening for lunch “in the very near future.” Posto is located at 674 Bliss Rd. in Longmeadow, and can be reached at 935-8500. At this time, they are only accepting reservations for parties of five or more.

Posto is still hiring, and interested prospects should contact the restaurant. Readers can follow Posto on Facebook on their page, “Posto by The Federal,” and on their Instagram “postobythefederal,” or by simply going to their website postoitalian.com.