Gravy

Gravy is an Italian-American kitchen on South Wilmington Street in downtown Raleigh. The name explains the cooking: in Italian-American homes, gravy means tomato sauce, and that sauce sits at the center of the menu here.

The restaurant opened in June 2009 and has cooked the same way since. The sauce is made from scratch every morning and ladled over pasta, and the kitchen draws on the long tradition of Italian-American cooking that a lot of families in this country grew up eating.

What to know

• Pasta is made in house and cooked al dente.
• The kitchen calls that consistency the ideal one for its pasta.
• Select tomatoes and locally grown herbs go into the signature sauce.
• North Carolina farms supply the menu whenever the owners can arrange it.
• State distilleries are used on the drinks side for the same reason.