Spinasse is the best fork-up-your-money Italian restaurant in town. While we’re at it, we’ll go so far as to deem it the greatest Seattle Italian establishment, full stop. Yes, that’s bold, but so is this Capitol Hill spot’s excellence, manifested in the form of incredible homemade pasta and thoughtful service played out effortlessly like an orchestral suite. The dining room has this old-school meets new-school feel, with enough reclaimed wood to delight your friend who has an Etsy shop, but also a sleek marble bar and open kitchen, where you’ll see pasta maestros at work crafting carb-based magnum opuses nightly. These pastas taste so phenomenal that we often end up not speaking to anyone we come with. And with good reason—when a nest of chewy tajarin coated in silky, cheesy sage butter is in front of you, whatever you or anyone else has to say is really not important. Unless it’s a pasta-related comment. This restaurant is not a secret, so nab a reservation a couple of weeks in advance unless you want to try your luck at bar seats. In the sunny summer months, snack on crispy fried zucchini blossoms stuffed with ricotta alongside a spritz. When the temperature dips below 40, bask in the steam of rich bolognese or risotto doused in Calabrian chile oil, swiping bread to capture the last bits of flavorful sauce. And if you stare at the menu as long as you would a page in “Where’s Waldo” and still can’t decide what to order, there’s a prix-fixe option that incorporates every appetizer, pasta, and entree that comes as a family-style tasting. Spinasse is a year-round treasure of a restaurant, perfect for any special occasion situation—be it a date, dinner-with-the-relatives, or throw-down group hang. Yes, your wallet might be significantly emptier at the end of it. But given how life-affirming a meal at Cascina Spinasse can be, it’s a lot more valuable than an evening at the symphony.