If Bobby Flay Had To Pick One Place To Dine For Life It'd Be This Seaside Haven

Asking a celebrity chef to choose one restaurant they'd eat at for life is like asking a fashionista to select a single label they'd indefinitely wear, or a professional gamer to play one game until the end of time. It's not a simple choice for most people — unless you're Bobby Flay. When Flay was asked this very question on the Elvis Duran show, he didn't hesitate to answer. He quickly named Italy's Amalfi Coast as the destination he'd head to, but immediately clarified that Lo Scoglio da Tommaso is the restaurant where all his meal dreams come true. He called the seaside eatery, "My favorite place in the world" (via YouTube).

Flay lavished praise on Lo Scoglio during his conversation on the radio program, particularly for the restaurant's zucchini pasta and fresh fish and shellfish from the Tyrrhenian Sea (which literally sits underneath the dining patio). He also noted, "The people who own it are like my family, and we never want to get up from the table at lunch." This is exactly the kind of sentiment Lo Scoglio's owners hope to convey. Antonia De Simone, who runs the restaurant, told Italy Segreta, "What guests will remember most about a beautiful meal isn't the food — it's the way you bring the lemon sorbet at the end with a smile. It's about quality, it's about humility, it's about simplicity. It's about the gestures."

Today, Lo Scoglio is run by Antonia, Margherita, and Tommaso De Simone, three siblings whose grandparents originally opened the restaurant in 1958. The restaurant is located in a small hamlet called Marina del Cantone, a picturesque pebble-dusted beach flanked by the azure sea and lemon-scented cliffs. On account of the location, it's no surprise that Lo Scoglio pulls fresh seafood from the water each day, but just as significant as the treasures from the ocean is the produce that goes into the dishes.

The De Simone family grows their own produce nearby. Fresh fruits, vegetables, and herbs are harvested each morning and brought straight to the kitchen. Its signature dish is spaghetti alla Nerano, the zucchini pasta that Bobby Flay is so fond of. Although spaghetti alla Nerano is considered an overlooked Italian pasta dish you need to try, it was spotlighted during the first episode of "Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy." After taking a bite, Tucci called it "one of the best things I've ever had in my life," leaving us to wonder if he, too, would choose Lo Scoglio as the only place he'd dine for life.

As for Flay, he turned his passion for the food of the Amalfi Coast into a business venture in 2021, opening his restaurant Amalfi in Las Vegas. Amalfi has dishes you don't want to miss, like charred octopus, but spaghetti alla Nerano isn't on the menu. Perhaps Flay wants to leave that one in Lo Scoglio's expert hands.