Sparrow soars

Edmond-area Realtors probably owe at least a percentage of their commission to Sparrow Modern Italian. Part of Holloway Restaurant Group, Sparrow factors into the calculus when deciding if you can handle the move to Edmond from Oklahoma City’s urban core. It fits nearly every need: happy hour with other parents from your kid’s school or a date night with your spouse that doesn’t require another round trip to the city. From book club meetups over a bottle of wine and appetizers to a big family dinner when people are in from out of town for the holidays, Sparrow always feels right.

Edmond has lots of good pizza, burgers and smoothies; there’s also no shortage of sushi, Thai or fast casual. But a place like Sparrow, with its excellent wine list, cocktail menu, delicious starters and house-made pastas — I just can’t really imagine living in Edmond without it. At once both upscale and approachable, the food is wonderful, and the service is outstanding.

None of this is surprising once you know the project is a collaboration between chefs Joel Wingate and Jeffery Holloway. Wingate is known for his attention to detail, both in the preparation of the meals he creates as well as the presentation. Holloway is the head of culinary at Holloway Restaurant Group, where he oversees menu development for Café 501 Edmond, Boulevard Steakhouse, Holloway Catering and Sparrow. Holloway is the son of Sheree and Peter Holloway, who founded Café 501 in 1995 and later opened Boulevard Steakhouse and then finally Sparrow in 2019. These three concepts sit next to each other on Boulevard, and together they make up the best local dining Edmond proper has to offer across three very different genres. Peter Holloway, the patriarch of the family as well as the namesake restaurant group, passed away in 2021. The family has worked hard to keep his legacy alive, and based on my recent visits, the Holloway legacy is thriving at Sparrow.

Part of the reason for its success is the bar program. This is one of the best bars in Edmond, from the Italian-inspired cocktail menu to the wine list, which features Italian wines from every region. For wine lovers in Edmond, Sparrow is hard to beat. Jeff’s brother, Andrew Holloway, is one of the two winemakers at Rombauer Vineyards, and the family enjoys deep connections in Napa Valley. The wine dinners at Sparrow are frequent and legendary. If you’re a wine aficionado in central Oklahoma, make sure you add your name to Sparrow’s mailing list so you never miss a wine dinner.

Starters

Before I even set foot in Sparrow, I’m already trying to figure out what starters to order. It’s always an impossible decision: warm garlic knots slathered in shallot butter or savory pizza rolls with Italian sausage, Parmesan, pepperoni and Calabrian chili ranch? Pomodoro meatballs with whipped ricotta or potato nests with pomodoro and gremolata? This time, we settled on the burrata. You can get burrata in lots of local restaurants these days, but at Sparrow, it’s served with beautifully roasted heirloom cherry tomatoes, basil pesto and slices of grilled rustic bread. We also decided to order the pizza rolls, which we usually love, but they were a little off-balance this time around.

Next up, salads. Every salad on this menu is one to write home about. I usually get the Italian house salad because I love the whole-grain mustard vinaigrette and the butter lettuce. My husband loves the Caprese, especially when local heirloom tomatoes are in season, and we almost always order at least one Caesar salad.

I absolutely dream of the Italian chopped salad, but it’s an entrée for me. Made with baby gem, red onion, heirloom tomato, pepperoncini, salami, crispy pepperoni, mozzarella, chickpeas and house Italian vinaigrette, it’s as close to La Scala as we can get in the 405. I’ve been known to order one to go for dinner on the rare night I find myself solo. This salad, a glass of Australian Shiraz, and Netflix can fix any number of ailments.

Entrees

Deciding what to order for entrees is always a bit of a negotiation in my family, especially when I’m there for a review. We had one order of spaghetti and meatballs — an absolute must for my children — although we all love the handmade meatballs, sized small but served with a generous hand. It was perfect, as usual: just the right ratio of al dente noodles to flavorful pomodoro.

We also ordered the blackened salmon, which is served with garlic-thyme potatoes, charred zucchini and radicchio, and a tomato reduction. It was my first time having this, and it did not disappoint. The charred zucchini and radicchio were just the most delicious touch, and the potatoes definitely had some sort of witchcraft involved to be so perfectly crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.

When dining with my family, I simply order my favorite thing on the menu: the 100-layer lasagna with Bolognese, whipped ricotta, garlic, béchamel and basil. It is always perfectly prepared with rich layers, melty cheese and just the right amount of crispiness on the outer edges of the noodles. It’s rich, but not as rich as you might think. As I’m always sharing it, I always get just the right amount of the melt-in-your-mouth layers of Bolognese, ricotta and béchamel. This is a Holloway family recipe, and we’re all lucky they decided to share it with us.

We skipped dessert this time around, but the desserts at Sparrow are always on point. With our kids, we almost always get the tiramisu, and the DIY cannoli is also a lot of fun, especially for a family.

Go-to takeout

The other thing I have ordered from Sparrow at least a dozen times is the chicken Parmesan pizza-style. This is my go-to takeout order when entertaining at home. This beautiful chicken parm is the size of a medium pizza, with sauce and cheese layered on top. It’s cut into eight pizza-style pieces, and it is my life hack for effortless entertaining. I make a Caesar dressing from scratch and toss a giant salad, serve Sparrow’s chicken Parmesan and mix a specialty cocktail. Guests bring bread, desserts and wine. It’s the easiest dinner party of all time, and friends are always impressed by the dish. At $34, it’s also a very affordable way to host a small group.

I’ve had Sparrow on so many occasions, you might think it had become commonplace, but it’s the opposite. I’ve come to associate it with family, comfort, and making sure even normal days are tinged with something special and memorable. I hope Sparrow is in Edmond as long as I am so I can keep coming back to make new memories.

Visit sparrowitalian.com.

This article appears in Pretty in pink.