There are restaurants you visit because you are hungry, and then there are restaurants that become part of your life.
A first date becomes an anniversary. A dinner with friends becomes an annual tradition. A birthday becomes a memory that gets revisited years later. Sometimes, an evening with no particular occasion becomes the beginning of something much more.
For more than two decades, Volterra has quietly become that kind of place for its guests.
Established in 2005 and serving the Kirkland community since 2012, the Italian restaurant has built its reputation around exceptional food, thoughtful wine, genuine hospitality, and an experience that feels special without ever feeling pretentious.
For Executive Chef, President and Co-Owner Don Curtiss, that philosophy began long before Volterra existed.
“My mother was Sicilian, so food was always much more than something you ate,” Don says. “It was about family, gathering, sharing a table.”
That early connection to Italian food and tradition became part of the foundation for Volterra. As a chef, Don wanted to take the warmth and hospitality he experienced growing up and combine it with the exceptional ingredients available here in the PNW.
The result is a restaurant where technique, quality ingredients, and attention to detail remain at the heart of the experience.
Fresh pasta is made in house. Sauces are developed with care. Ingredients are thoughtfully sourced, and each dish is approached with patience and restraint rather than simply following the latest culinary trend.
One of Volterra's most recognizable dishes is its wild boar tenderloin with Gorgonzola sauce, a signature that has remained popular since the restaurant's early days. For Don, however, handmade pasta perhaps captures the philosophy of Volterra best.
“Pasta looks simple, but doing it really well requires a lot of technique, patience and restraint,” he says.
That same attention to detail extends to the restaurant's wine program, which has earned the Wine Spectator Award of Excellence for 21 consecutive years.
Winning recognition once is an accomplishment. Maintaining that standard for more than two decades requires something much more difficult: consistency.
A serious wine program is not simply about filling a list with expensive or prestigious bottles. It requires knowledge, careful inventory management, continual evolution, and an understanding of which wines complement the food.
For Don, wine has always been an important part of the Italian dining experience. The goal is not simply to offer impressive bottles, but to select wines that belong alongside the food and enhance the entire meal.
That consistency is one reason Volterra remains a destination through more than 20 years of changes in Kirkland and the restaurant industry. But Don and Co-Owner and Manager Jasmin Love Curtiss are quick to point out that longevity does not mean standing still.
Today, Don and Jasmin are shaping the future of Volterra, bringing very different strengths to the business.
Don's background is deeply rooted in culinary and restaurant experience, while Jasmin spent decades in the technology sector, where communication, relationships, and connecting with people were central to her career. At Volterra, she focuses heavily on the guest experience, presentation, events, marketing, community relationships, and how the restaurant communicates its identity.
They see the business through different lenses, and that is exactly what they believe makes the partnership work.
“We have different strengths, and I think that's what makes the partnership work,” Jasmin says. “Don brings decades of culinary and restaurant experience. I tend to look very closely at the guest experience.”
Their partnership is not limited to the restaurant. In fact, Volterra is where their own love story began.
Jasmin had been a longtime Volterra customer before ever meeting Don. She was already a regular takeout customer and had fallen in love with the restaurant's spaghetti puttanesca. One evening, she decided to stop in for dinner at the bar.
The food was as delicious as she had always known it would be, but that evening, something else caught her attention. The staff greeted guests by name, conversations flowed easily between regulars, and there was a warmth throughout the room that made her feel as though she had stumbled into something special. It was the kind of atmosphere that made you want to stay awhile.
So she kept coming back, often bringing friends and her oldest son with her. Eventually, she met Don. At first, their interactions were brief, five or ten minute conversations as he made his way through the restaurant. Then, one evening, she happened to sit next to him, and those few minutes turned into two hours of conversation over dinner. Their relationship grew from there.
“We became partners in love, partners in life, and now partners in the restaurant that brought us together,” Jasmin says.
Today, Don and Jasmin bring different perspectives to Volterra, but they share the same vision for its future. Don continues to guide the culinary and wine programs, while Jasmin brings her experience in communication, relationships, events, marketing, and the guest experience. Together, they are looking at every part of the restaurant through the same question: How do you continue to make Volterra better without losing what makes it Volterra?
That means refining rather than reinventing. The menu and wine program continue to evolve. A new website and photography are helping tell the Volterra story in fresh ways, while Saturday evening live music in the bar has added another dimension to the experience.
At the same time, the things that have earned Volterra its loyal following remain firmly in place. Fresh pasta is still made in house. The wine program continues to receive careful attention. Signature dishes remain consistent. And the warm, personal hospitality that first drew Jasmin through the door is still at the center of the experience.
“We want to protect what people love about Volterra while continuing to move it forward,” Don says.
For Don and Jasmin, moving forward does not mean leaving anything behind. It means taking the best of what Volterra has built over more than two decades and continuing to give it room to grow.
“Elegant doesn't have to mean formal or intimidating,” Jasmin says. “We want Volterra to feel special and still feel warm.”
That balance may be one of the reasons Volterra has remained such a meaningful part of Kirkland for so long. A guest who has been coming for 20 years should still recognize the restaurant they fell in love with, while someone walking through the door for the first time should feel just as welcomed.
Whether it is a milestone celebration, a favorite dish enjoyed for the hundredth time, live music on a Saturday evening, or a dinner that becomes the beginning of a new tradition, the goal remains the same: to make people feel that their time at Volterra matters.
The future of Volterra is not about becoming something different. It is about continuing to become more fully itself.
The table is still set. The pasta is still being made by hand. The wine is still being chosen with care. And Don and Jasmin are still asking what they can do to make the experience better for the people sitting across from them.
For a restaurant that has spent more than two decades bringing people together, perhaps that is the most fitting way to look ahead: not by leaving the past behind, but by making sure there is always a place at the table.
Book your reservations at: volterrakirkland.com
“It is about family, gathering, and sharing a table.”