Venezia Trattoria, Where the Sauce Is Saucy, Expands to McKinney

How many times over the last several years have you driven past an old abandoned Steak n Shake restaurant and wondered if it would ever open again or turn into something else? Seemed like they were all just going to sit there empty forever.

Benny Krasniqi had his eye on the one in McKinney for a while, and early last year he was able to purchase the building and give it a new start as Venezia Trattoria. The building didn’t wake up easily, but now you would never recognize the place and you'd never guess it used to be a middling fast food joint.

The Venezia name might be new to McKinney residents, but it has quite a history in Richardson. The Krasniqi family has operated restaurants there for over 20 years and saw this as a way to upgrade and branch out. The family is all in on the restaurants: Benny oversees the kitchen and menu, son Tony runs the business side, wife Mandy still operates the Richardson location and is the master dessert maker, and brother and sister Albion and Albiona keep the dining room rolling.
The dining room is bright and spacious with lots of tables and booths. A beautiful bar runs along the left side, and there's a private dining area in the back for large groups. Be sure to check out their half-price wine-by-the-glass specials on Sunday and Wednesday. The menu has traditional Italian favorites with some elevated options as well as a list of daily specials.

We started with some appetizers ($13 each) and quickly learned that the sauce rules here. Meticulously made sauces accompany just about everything. The stuffed mushrooms were swimming in a pink vodka sauce, and the scampi bites came with a delicate garlic white wine butter sauce. House made rolls are available and are perfect to help you with any leftover sauce.

For dinner, we tried the Chicken Genovese ($21), which reminded us of a marsala, but the sauce was a little more creamy and rich, with a cognac base. We later learned that creamy sauces are a specialty learned from Mandy’s mom, who grew up in Italy.
A Chilean Sea Bass ($40) special was a light, flaky bite with a nice lemon white wine sauce along with a side of pasta. It was excellent, but we found ourselves wanting a larger piece of fish because it disappeared too quickly.

The Chef’s Favorite special ($26) was breaded chicken breast over pasta with red peppers and pepperoncini in a rich brandy cream sauce. The dish had a pronounced red pepper taste, which we loved, but if that isn’t your thing, the kitchen will happily make it without. Initially, the pepperoncini seemed like an odd choice, but it enhanced the dish.

The dessert menu offers many options, and everything is made from scratch. We sampled three different types of creme brulee. The espresso creme brulee, with a tiramisu-like flavor, was our favorite. The cannolis were also perfect.
The winner of the night was the Cherry Amaretto Cheesecake, with a crunchy graham cracker crust with little bits of cherry. Rumor has it that if you ask Ms. Mandy nicely she will make whole cakes and pies that you can purchase for your holiday dinner.

On our next visit, we'll try the stone-oven pizza, which helped the family start on this journey long ago.

Venezia Trattoria, 1820 El Dorado Parkway, McKinney. Tuesday – Thursday, 11 a.m. – 9:30 p.m.; Friday – Saturday, 11 a.m. – 10 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m. – 9 p.m.