Ettore’s professional career began in Barcelona and then returned to Vasto where he opened his own restaurant in 2017, a place that was missing, not a traditional grill, but a real temple of quality meat. «Mine is a place that -Ettore explains- we define fusion, combines tradition and innovation with high-level products».

“Era Ora Braceria” started as a very traditional place that offered purely local products, then over the years has evolved, the change paradoxically there was right in the period of Covid, during which Ettore decided to make major investments. I risked in a very difficult economic moment, – he tells us- I wanted to push and give a turn to the restaurant. I redone a complete restyling of the furnishings and above all I added new meat of the highest quality».

Ettore has shocked the choice of meat, ordering only cuts from Japan, Finland, Australia, Spain, countries in which the best world-wide products selected according to the BMS scale (To define the high quality it is used the Beef Marbling Score). Japanese or Finnish meats are the best -Ettore explains- because they breed animals there as if they lived in a 5-star hotel. The peculiarity of Kobe beef, for example, lies in the fact that these cattle are bred in a very unique way, trying to avoid any kind of stress, until they are even massaged.

The meat thus becomes marbled, that is, constituted by a dense net of intramuscular veins where the fat, distributed capillary inside the muscle and not only around it, becomes tender and edible, unlike many domestic beef where the fat, usually present between the muscle and the dermis, must be eliminated».

«Apart from the skewers that come from Villa Celiera, -Ettore tells us- there are no cuts of Italian meat from us, I made this choice because I believe that Italian farms are not at the level of Japanese or Australian ones». Ettore, 45, is the father of two children, Joel 8 years old and Swami just 11 months old, that he had by his new partner Chiara Taraborrelli.

Chiara today is her right-hand man in everything, she fully embraced this project, passionate about wine as her partner takes care of the restaurant hall. Thanks to the marbling of the meat, the quality of these and the cooking technique, today “Era Ora Braceria” is considered one of the best grill houses in Abruzzo and Italy.

For the safety of the customer, Ettore tells us, all meats are checked on arrival of the courier through a digital thermometer and phometer to prevent storage has altered them. The marbling, we remember, is the infiltration and distribution of fat within the animal muscle tissue.

They’re those small veins and patches of white fat that you see (raw), for example among the red fibers of meat in the highest quality steaks. Our platters are made up of cheeses and cold cuts from Abruzzo, -continues the owner- selected in the best farms, to which for example we accompany the Iberian ham cut by hand.

I like to mix products and their origin, always in a fusion perspective, the common denominator must always be quality, on that I do not compromise». In Spain Ettore worked in the restaurant hall, then he learned in the kitchen the techniques of charcoal and did a lot of practice.

He trained by reading books, staying in the kitchen, walking around restaurants, and recently took a course on ripening at the famous grill “Braciami ancora”. «This is a place where you can spend a lot or a little, -explain Ettore and Chiara- depends on the order, you can spend the evening eating an all made chopping board in Abruzzo with excellent skewers or choose a cut of meat like Kobe, the Swami Wagyu or the Wadi from Spain that can cost even 35-40 euros per pound, up to taste a plate of Iberian ham “Joselito” cut by hand that we provide the friends of the agency Vino&Co».

Great attention is paid to the cards of beers and wines that expand both national and international offer with prestigious labels. Everything has to come out of the fire perfectly, -the pair continues- if we make a mistake we do it again. But by choice, as I did write in the menu, we do not offer well-cooked meat, this is a cooking that makes you lose all the flavors and tastes of meat.

We have about 70,80 seats and during summer we get to 200. We worked very hard, the city welcomed us greatly from the start, they recognized that our change was dictated by a quality choice». We are very satisfied with this path, -concludes Ettore- and we want to continue along this line. I recently bought a meat-ripening refrigerator that regulates humidity and temperature and makes them mature at the top.

It is important to continue to invest to give the customer the best». And Ettore, we understand, is “obsessed” by the quality of his meat.