Experience the sights, sounds and savors of Italy at Mama Fla in Idaho Falls

IDAHO FALLS – Marco and Flaminia Assirelli are thrilled their authentic Italian restaurant in Idaho Falls is finally open after a delayed start time due to staffing and supply shortages.

Mama Fla Authentic Italian Cuisine opened Sept. 24, at 385 River Parkway but was originally supposed to open in May.

“The contractor had a lot of problems in finding people that would continuously work on the project and we had more to complete from the ceiling to the floors to the walls to the kitchen,” Marco tells EastIdahoNews.com.

Despite the delays, Marco says the response has been fantastic and they’ve had a steady flow of customers every day, and sometimes they’re so packed that people have to come back later.

The restaurant offers customers 18 different menu items, including fettuccine, linguine, lasagne and rigatoni with different types of sauces. The menu also includes salads, soups and appetizers, like bruschetta pomodoro (a piece of crispy country bread topped with diced tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil, salt, garlic and a special glaze), and bruschetta olive (an olive pesto served over toasted bread).

EastIdahoNews.com tried some of the menu items, which you can watch in the video player above.

Italian music can be heard in the restaurant and giant photos of Italian landscapes adorn the walls. All the dishes are the Assirelli’s own recipes and all the ingredients come from Italy.

Flaminia says there’s one key difference between Americanized Italian food versus the genuine article.

“We love to prepare fresh pasta every day (and the way it’s prepared changes the texture, which makes it possible to absorb more sauce),” she says.

Another big difference is the lack of GMOs and pesticides because they’re not allowed in Italy. Americans add lots of meat, whereas Italians focus on just pasta, she says.

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The Assirellis originally hail from Rome and moved to the United States in 2019. A company Marco used to manage called Sensor Medica, an international corporation that makes sensor devices for gate and body motion analysis, opened an American branch in Idaho Falls. He’s since walked away from that position to manage the restaurant full-time with his wife.

Flaminia was a chef at a catering company in Rome about five years ago and they decided to bring a taste of Italy to eastern Idaho after learning there were no Italian restaurants around.

When asked about their first impression of Idaho Falls, Marco responded that it’s a beautiful city with kind people and he loves the “easy way of living.”

“Coming from a bigger city like Rome that is difficult for parking and traffic, (it’s nice to live in a place where this isn’t as big of an issue),” he says.

But it hasn’t been without challenges. The Assirellis have a thick Italian accent and Flaminia says the hardest thing for her is learning English.

“I have a lot of difficulty to speak English and to pronounce some words, the accent,” she explains.

“I have always been speaking English with other countries, not the U.S. The accent of the other countries talking in English is very different,” Marco adds.

But they love being part of the community and they’re looking forward to making Italian food more widely available throughout the state. The couple is planning to sell their pasta and sauces in other places and they’re hoping to eventually open an Italian store where people can buy authentic Italian products.

Since moving here, Marco says they’ve met many people who have been to Italy for various reasons and they always remember the Italian atmosphere, food and culture and they love talking to them about it.

“When people come here, they love to talk with us. They are very curious and appreciate that we share our experience, our culture with them,” Flaminia says. “We are very glad that people come here to know and meet us.”

They invite you to come and experience a taste of Italy. Mama Fla is open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.