La Peca Restaurant
La Peca is a two-Michelin-star restaurant in Lonigo, in the Berici Hills south of Vicenza, run by brothers Nicola and Pierluigi Portinari. One of the longest-established starred restaurants in the Veneto, it draws a loyal national and international clientele for a cuisine that grounds contemporary technique in the produce of the Veneto plain — freshwater fish, white asparagus, radicchio, Berici truffles — and in the exceptional local wine culture of the Colli Berici and Soave regions.
At a glance
- Type
- Fine dining restaurant
- Period
- Founded mid-20th century as a family trattoria; Michelin-starred from the 1990s; two stars from the 2000s
- Style
- Contemporary Venetian and Vicentino cuisine; seasonal, rooted in the Veneto plain and Berici Hills
- Location
- Lonigo, Province of Vicenza, Veneto
- Coordinates
- 45.3848° N, 11.3991° E
- Recognition
- Two Michelin stars; among the most established starred restaurants in the Veneto
Overview
La Peca is located in Lonigo, a small market town at the southern edge of the Colli Berici — a range of limestone hills that separates the Vicenza plain from the Po valley and produces its own distinctive wines and truffles. The Portinari family has run the restaurant across multiple generations, transforming what began as a modest family business into a nationally recognised fine dining destination without abandoning the community character that sustains it in a non-tourist town.
Nicola Portinari, who leads the kitchen, is considered one of the most intellectually serious chefs of his generation in the Veneto, known for long seasons of product research and for his annual dedication to a single ingredient or theme — Venetian cuttlefish, Vicentino baccalà, freshwater fish of the Adige and Brenta rivers — explored through an entire tasting menu. Pierluigi manages the dining room and the wine programme, which is particularly strong in Venetian and northeast Italian labels.
History
The Portinari family established a trattoria in Lonigo in the post-war period, serving the agricultural community of the Berici Hills in the traditional Vicentino manner — substantial portions, local wine by the carafe, seasonal menus dictated by what was available rather than what was fashionable. This foundation in the local food culture of the Veneto plain proved a durable asset when Nicola Portinari began transforming the kitchen into a fine dining operation in the 1980s and 1990s.
La Peca earned its first Michelin star in the 1990s, a time when starred restaurants in the Veneto were concentrated in Verona and Venice rather than in the provincial towns of the interior. A second star followed in the 2000s, confirming the restaurant’s position alongside Le Calandre in Sarmeola and Dal Pescatore in Canneto sull’Oglio as one of the benchmark tables of the Italian northeast. The restaurant has maintained its two-star rating for over two decades.
What you see
The dining room at La Peca is quietly elegant — a room that has been refined over decades without ostentation, with warm lighting, well-spaced tables, and a visual language of natural materials that echoes the agricultural landscape outside. The service is formal without rigidity, reflecting the balance between professional fine dining and the genuine hospitality of a family-run house that has operated in its community for generations.
Menus at La Peca are seasonal and often thematic, with autumn devoted to local truffles and mushrooms, spring to white asparagus from Bassano del Grappa and the first river fish of the season, and winter to preserved and fermented Venetian traditions — salt cod, marinated sardines, polenta preparations — reimagined with contemporary precision. The cellar is comprehensive in northeast Italy: Soave, Valpolicella, Amarone, Friulian whites, and Alto Adige labels are particularly well represented.
Cultural significance
La Peca represents a model of regional fine dining that resists the pull of major urban centres and tourist destinations, remaining embedded in a small Vicentino community while attracting national and international recognition. Its longevity — spanning more than sixty years from trattoria to two-Michelin-star destination — makes it one of the most instructive case studies in the evolution of Italian gastronomy across the second half of the twentieth century and the first decades of the twenty-first.
Nicola Portinari’s sustained focus on the specific foodways of the Veneto plain — freshwater fish, marsh vegetables, fermented dairy, ancient grain preparations — has contributed to a broader revaluation of inland Venetian cuisine, which had long been overshadowed by the seafood culture of Venice and the wine tourism of Verona.
Practical information
- Address
- Via Alberto Giovanelli 2, 36045 Lonigo VI, Italy
- Hours
- Check the official website for current opening days; closed periods apply in summer and winter
- Reservations
- Essential; advance booking is strongly recommended
- Price range
- High (Michelin two-star; tasting menus and à la carte available)
Getting there
Lonigo is located approximately 30 kilometres south of Vicenza and 35 kilometres west of Verona, accessible by car via the A4 motorway (exit Montebello Vicentino or Soave-San Bonifacio). By public transport, take the train from Vicenza or Verona Porta Nuova to Montebello Vicentino or Lonigo station (services on the Vicenza–Schio and Vicenza–Legnago lines); a local taxi to the restaurant from the station covers the remaining distance. Vicenza is approximately 45 minutes from Venice Santa Lucia by high-speed train.