{"id":430090,"date":"2026-10-17T02:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T02:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/430090\/"},"modified":"2026-10-17T02:00:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T02:00:08","slug":"espositos-the-definition-of-essential-italian-dining-in-tampa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/430090\/","title":{"rendered":"Esposito\u2019s: The Definition of \u201cEssential Italian Dining\u201d in Tampa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>They\u2019ve won Best Italian 5 years in a row. Now, Esposito\u2019s is dropping some new, enticingly unique menu items you won\u2019t find anywhere else in Tampa.<\/p>\n<p>Ma\u2019s Flounder: Stuffed with crabmeat in a delicious Grand Marnier Orange beurre blanc.<\/p>\n<p>Barolo Red Wine Risotto: Braised pork, fresh rosemary, and a touch of mascarpone. The Barolo turns the rice a robust purple color bursting with a deep, lingering finish!<\/p>\n<p>Pasta Zozzona: A mashup of Cacio Pepe, Carbonara, and Amatriciana tossed with rigatoni and baby sausage meatballs. Rome\u2019s ultimate underground secret turned trendy viral comeback is ONLY available at Esposito\u2019s!<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-41466\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/table-with-food-copy-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1970\"  \/>Featuring Esposito\u2019s Pasta Zozzona (top left), Barolo Red Wine Risotto (bottom left), Veal Chop Parmigiana (center), Ma\u2019s Flounder (top right), and Saltimbocca ala Romana (bottom right).<\/p>\n<p>Veal Chop Parmigiana: Not an \u201centry level\u201d tableside parmigiana but a Big League Veal Chop Parmigiana pounded so perfectly thin and round that it resembles a small pizza (with a bone sticking out, of course).<\/p>\n<p>Saltimbocca ala Romana: Veal with prosciutto, sage, white wine and butter served with arugula and roasted potatoes. Owner Paul Varsalona has often remarked, \u201cThis is my Beat Bobby Flay dish.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Whether Bobby wants to take on Tampa\u2019s 5 Time defending Italian Champ has yet to be determined\u2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Esposito\u2019s<br \/>14306 N Dale Mabry Hwy., Tampa | (813) 769-9098<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/espositositaliantampa.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">espositositaliantampa.com<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/instagram.com\/espositostampa\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">@espositostampa<\/a><\/p>\n<p>                                                    <script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They\u2019ve won Best Italian 5 years in a row. Now, Esposito\u2019s is dropping some new, enticingly unique menu&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430091,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[26025,168968,69238,168969,135,137,136],"class_list":["post-430090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-espositos","tag-essential-italian","tag-italian-food","tag-new-menu","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}