BOSA owned and operated by chefs Bill Dockter and Nate King, offers regional Italian and French specialties including housemade pasta.  They opened in August of 2021 in the historic Bakery Building, just before Covid hit.  The restaurant is named for a town in the Sardinia region of Italy that the owners felt resembled Bend.  It’s a long space with counter seating running the length of the place divided by a low wall with the table area.  The open ceiling is decorated with cloth ‘flowers’ probably for sound absorption as the rest of it is hard surfaces.  Opposite the counter seating are numerous windows that offer views of the street.  The other walls have mirrors or art.  The noise level was significant as it was packed with tables changing out regularly, but it did get better when one large group left and was replaced with 2 or 4 person groups.  The plates are served family style and meant to be shared.  Our server wanted our entire order in at one time and said he would course it out.  He did, it was well paced and the small table did not get overwhelmed.  It was really tasty food and I would recommend this place be on your schedule when you visit.

Set Up

 

Food

Oregon Dungeness Crab came with sweet avocado, cantaloupe, cilantro, and lemon-brown butter vinaigrette in 3 similar portions.  The crab was sweet and delicious with one large piece sitting on top of the picked pieces.  Next to it was some small dice of super sweet cantaloupe and avocado purée topped with a cilantro leaf.  This was a beautiful combination of flavors.  They all worked great together for a plate-licking type of dish.

 

Bigoli “cacio e pepe” included beurre monté, cracked black pepper, parmigiano, pecorino, toasted breadcrumbs and parsley.  The pasta was made in-house, a thick spaghetti shape that was cooked perfectly.  The spicy black pepper sauce was cheesy and buttery for a delicious dish.  Another plate worthy of plate-licking.

 

The Bone-In Ribeye was a 40 oz. sliced oregon Country Natural ribeye with grilled leek agrodolce on the rib bone.   The tender and delicious beef was cooked a nice rare as requested.  The leek sauce was slightly sweet, almost like a barbecue sauce which was tasty but I hated to cover the savory flavor of the nice beef with it.  There was no “cardboard” meat on this plate.  Wow.

 

Italian style bitter greens combined kale and broccoli rapini with onion, garlic and lemon confit.  It was a good sized bowl of tasty greens.  My husband would have liked them cooked a bit more but I liked eating them with the sweet leek sauce on the beef.

 

For dessert we split the Warm Toffee Date Cake topped with citrus caramel and served with salted vanilla gelato.  This was a very moist yet light cake.  The caramel drizzle sweetened it as did the gelato from the Bonta shop we visited.   It had a lovely rich flavor with just the right amount of sweetness.  A fabulous dessert to go with an equally fabulous meal.