Ruffino Fine Italian Cuisine offers a touch of class

A lot of restaurants in Ahwatukee Foothills allow customers to pick up an order and take it home.

Ruffino Fine Italian Cuisine can pick up the customers at home and take them to the restaurant in a stretch limousine.

It’s one of the extra classy touches that Tom Ferris and Tommy DiLorenzo have come up with since purchasing the popular long-time Ahwatukee Foothills establishment in December.

Ferris and DiLorenzo were Ruffino patrons for years while operating other food and beverage establishments in the area.

“I eat because I love good food,” explained Ferris, who has been a restaurateur for 40 years. “Tommy eats when he’s hungry.”

Ferris, who has been a chef, and DiLorenzo, whose experience is in sports bars, both retired from the business.

“We both were bored,” Ferris said.

So the duo got busy bringing a new idea, attitude, energy and zest to the dinning experience at Ruffino.

That includes the stretch limo that can be reserved in advance and will transport patrons to the restaurant from within a 10- to 15-mile radius for about the cost of a couple glasses of wine.

The limo and a piano bar, rare in this area of the Valley, are offered Wednesday through Sunday evenings as part of the romantic ambiance the partners have created.

“Yeah, it’s a pretty romantic place,” Ferris said. “Our customers know their favorite tables and when we turn the lights down low it’s a pretty romantic place.”

But it wouldn’t work without the food and Martin’, a popular chef who was more of a deal-maker than the equipment and furnishings when Ferris and DiLorenzo considered purchasing the establishment that has been a part of the Ahwatukee Foothills dining scene since it opened in 1989.

Martin’ was the chef when Ruffino opened, but had been in another kitchen for the past four years.

“He is gifted,” Ferris said, “and everyone who knows him follows him. Anyone in the Ahwatukee area that hasn’t had a meal he’s cooked doesn’t know what they’re missing. Without him it wouldn’t have been a deal.”

Naturally, Ferris is a regular.

“After every meal I tell my wife (Donna), ‘That was the best meal I’ve had,’ and she reminds me that I’ve said that every night since we opened,” Ferris said. “So I couldn’t tell anyone what to pick, but ravioli is something of a specialty. We have our own full-time pasta maker who makes it fresh.”

That’s not just ravioli, but ravioli offered several different ways, including the seafood ravioli. The Seafood Ruffino and Veal Ruffino are other popular specialties along with lasagna, egg plant parmesan and shrimp jalapeno. Everything is served over a bed of fresh lingunie. For meat lovers there are also hand-cut, 14-ounce steaks and filet mignon on the menu.

The ultimate compliment came from a visitor from Italy who told Ferris and DiLorenzo that the egg plant parmesan was the best she had ever had.

“The only thing better than that would have been if Tommy and I had cooked it,” Ferris said.

No Italian meal, of course, would be complete without the proper wine and Ruffino has a wine list ranging from $1,000 to $24 a bottle or cognac brandy from $100 to $2.75 a glass.

The dinning room is open from 5 to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and from 5 to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. However, the partners are exploring Early Bird hours and a lighter, European-style menu after 10 p.m. The bar remains open until 1 a.m.

“We’re having fun and coming up with new ideas,” DiLorenzo said, “and because we’re having fun everyone looks forward to coming to work.”

But not in a limo.

Ruffino Fine Italian Cuisine

4902 E. Warner Road

(480) 893-8544

Hours: 5 to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday; and 5 to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday