Wink 24 is a new restaurant at Biltmore Fashion Park that serves wood-fired pizzas and paninis, fresh salads, and charcuterie as well as a carefully selected premium wine and craft beer list.
Wink 24 was founded by husband and wife Ruggero and Fernanda Borletti. The food and drink menu draws inspiration from Fernanda’s Mexican roots and those of her husband Ruggero’s love of his native Italy.
The interior of Wink 24 is brightly designed with splashes of intense green, orange and magenta—contrasted with the black wood burning pizza oven. It makes for a fun, yet comfortable atmosphere.
For starting dishes, one of our favorites was the Zucchini Fritte, which is paper thin, flash fried zucchini served with Labneh yogurt dipping sauce. The Polpette appetizer is a great choice too – Italian meatballs with spicy tomato sauce and homemade bread.
They also offer a variety of salads. Our favorite salad was the Parsnip & Pecorino Salad made with roasted parsnips, bacon, green apples, Pecorino cheese with Vidalia onion warm vinaigrette over a bed of greens.
The wood-fired pizzas are of course a delicious choice. Regardless of which toppings you choose, we recommend trying the homemade Chile morita sauce (made from Morita chiles) with your pizza. It certainly has a kick, so use it sparingly, but it adds a delicious additional dimension to the flavor of the pizza.
Finally, there are eight varieties of crostini and eight types of Panini made with oven fired bread to choose from.
We were curious what the reason was for the name Wink 24, so we had to get the story from the owner.
“A wink is an experience shared between people, a secret message, much like a drink or a meal—but it transcends relationships, age and more. Our menu is simple, relatable and meant to be shared—much like a simple wink,” said Fernanda Borletti. In fact, guests will notice the phrase “Con Amore. Per Favore,” adorning the staffs’ t-shirts and in other select places—this means—with love, please. Another nod to Fernanda Borletti’s desire to do everything with purpose and love, something every guest will notice from the moment they enter Wink 24.
Wink 24 is open daily for lunch 11:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m., happy hour 2:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m. and dinner 6:00 p.m.-10:00 p.m.
Get more information about Wink24 at wink24.net.
2502 East Camelback Road
Suite 148 A & B
Phoenix, AZ, 85016
Photo Credit: Joanie Simon