Don’t miss the Vegetable Plate at Giardini Trattoria and Cartering Co. in Columbus.

Mark Woodbridge came to the North Carolina mountains 10 years ago, when restaurants in Polk County featured “country-style canned vegetables, reheated.” What a difference a decade makes. Now Woodbridge, a vegetarian, can sit down to supper in a renovated farmhouse and look out at the garden where the organic vegetables are grown and picked. Giardini’s owners, Mary Lyth and Joe Laudisio, moved to Polk County to retire, but the former Hilton Head Island restaurateurs “found that we missed the food business.” The result is a trattoria with a menu that bristles with Italian dishes such as drunken fig salad, handmade pasta, and wood-fired pizzas.

Woodbridge suggests ordering whatever is growing in the garden at the moment — baby greens, luscious zucchini, heritage tomatoes, or crisp green beans, to name a few items.

Giardini Trattoria and Catering Co.
2411 N.C. Highway 108 East, Columbus, N.C. 28756
phone: (828) 894-0234
web: giardinigardens.com