The Wrong Way is the Right Way to go

Having begun to despair at the monotony of Bologna's restaurants (don't get me wrong, the food is great, it's just that when the same list of primi piatti, usually tortellini, lasagne and the like, and slight variations of very samey secondi, keep on popping up everywhere, eventually the appeal of eating out wares off) it came as a nice surprise to stumble upon a different type of restaurant.

I came across it when my sister was visiting me and we went for a little wonder down Via del Pratello, seeing as it was her first time in Bologna and that was one of my less explored parts of the city. We wondered about in search of - well neither of us really knew what we were in search of - so we simply wondered about aimlessly, until eventually we came across a little restaurant called "Il Rovescio" (which means "backwards," or "wrong way"). What attracted us most about the place was its menu which consisted of locally produced, mainly organic, foods as well as the cosy vibes that seemed to be pouring out of its buzzing interior. For those of you that don't know me personally, I am one to spend, what some may consider, an excessive amount of time in supermarkets checking the labels of products and deliberating over their origins; I do this with food and with cosmetic products and sometimes shopping can be a bit of an ordeal. I like to cook my own food (that way you know exactly what you're putting into your mouth) and to eat healthily, and where possible/worth the extra cost, I try to buy organic/responsibly sourced products. This could explain why I am always broke. Anyway you can understand my delight when I found this place.

So this little gem is located on a little street that branches off of Via del Pratello, and the idea is that they are a "ristorante a KM 0" cioè, serve locally produced foods.
They do their grocery shopping where I do mine every Saturday morning (at the Mercato della Terra about which I will dedicate a separate post to soon) and their menus change frequently, offering whatever fruit and veg is in season (which is another of their many charms in my opinion).

They also have a little pizza place called Il Forno del Rovescio, which serves wholegrain crust pizzas (as well as normal, white ones) with no additives, organic wines and beers, and a couple of other dishes that you can take away or have delivered to your front door. I ordered a pizza from them once to give it a try and was told that mine would take a while as they had just had another order and their means of delivery is by bicycle! Luckily, Bologna is rather small so it only took about half an hour anyway!

The only down-side that comes to mind is that, when my sister and I were there, a lot of their dishes were out of stock (it sounded like they had had a bit of a fridge problem so this could be why). I do appreciate it is difficult to effectively stock up for an organically themed menu, where things no doubt tend to go off much quicker etc. but it was a bit disappointing all the same. I'd say, if you're going to a small, independent restaurant that offers organic foods, be ready for them not to be able to offer everything on the menu - and see it more as a positive thing! Worth noting that everything that was available was great.
[A dinner would cost you around 20-30 euros per person including drinks.]

So there we have it; a cosy little venue that adds a bit of a twist to traditional Bolognese food; if they claim to be backwards, then backwards is definitely the way forward.