Slide Show: Heritage inspires restaurateur

Amanda Dolasinski/The Lantern Dan Wade, a 2006 Ohio State graduate, cooks up chicken carbonara at his Westerville restaurant.

Daniel Wade cannot be stuffed into a cubicle. He would rather be roaming around the kitchen throwing specialty Italian foods into different pots to create authentic Italian cuisine.

He has traveled all the way across the globe to study the culture, and with help from his grandmother, has created a menu of 10 different Italian entrees.

His grandmother owned and ran a local bar, so Wade acquired a lot of culinary experience watching her as a child.

Amanda Dolasinski/The Lantern Dan Wade gave up a career in finance to pursue his dream of owning a restaurant.

"Growing up, my mom would work and I would stay with my grandma, known as 'Nonni.' We'd always cook together," he said.

With his rich heritage, it seemed inevitable he would continue his grandmother's cooking tradition, but instead, started on a different path in life. The 25-year-old graduated from Ohio State in Dec. 2006 with a degree in family resource management. Shortly after, he started working for Prudential Financial.

"The pay was decent, but I'm just not a cubicle person. I just really didn't like it," he said.

Once he left the corporation he helped a friend open up a restaurant, traveled to Los Angeles to manage a bar and Italy to study cuisine and finally found property for his own restaurant in Westerville. He decided to name the bar Cardone's, after his grandmother.

"The name, Cardone's, is my grandmother's name. So I would say that would be the connection. Not only that, but the red sauce. I try to emulate her," he said.

Wade said his restaurant offers old world-style Italian food inspired by his grandmother.

"A lot of the dishes come from where my grandma is from, which is the Abruzzo region, just east of Rome," he said. "The Italian dressing, it's her recipe. Of course I can't duplicate it. As much as I try and she tells me her recipe, but I believe she's leaving something out. I'd watch her make it, but I'm pretty sure I would turn around and she would throw something in when I'm not looking."

Back in the kitchen, pots and pans full of sizzling food cooked while Wade ran around adding seasonings to each dish.

"The most rewarding part about cooking is it's a stress release," he said. "My favorite step (of cooking) … I like giving it to the person."

Carefully selecting each item on the menu, Wade said he made sure to only include authentic Italian dishes. The hand-picked menu includes spaghetti and meatballs, cheese ravioli, gnocchi alla gorgonzola, stuffed shells, chicken parmesan, chicken carbonara, Italian sausage and peppers, shrimp arrabbiata, scallop puttanesca, grilled pork chop and specialty pizzas.

"A lot of our dishes have pasta noodles that you really don't find at other places, such as pappardella pasta and bucatini pasta and cavappi pasta. Plus we have gnocchi on the menu and we make our own gnocchi."

But even more exciting than the food, he said he enjoyed tasting and finalizing a wine list.

"I love wine," he said. "Being able to hand-pick the wine list and put together the menu exactly how you would want is a very, very fun experience."

Cardone's currently offers 23 different wines, nearly all of them Italian, but hopes to expand the list to at least 30 by the end of the year. Wade also plans to add a dining patio and espresso machine to his restaurant.

"This fit my pocketbook and everything I wanted to do," he said of the restaurant, which seats up to 48. "It's small, it's sexy, it's quaint."

Amanda Dolasinski can be reached at dolasinski.1@osu.edu.