The sign could have said “Closed and Remodeling.”
The St. Louis Business Journal reported yesterday that after almost 18 years at 15 N. Central Ave in the heart of Clayton, Portabella has indeed closed. The last service was Saturday night, May 28.
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The Journal stated that owner Angela Del Pietro sold the restaurant to Kim Tucci and Joe Fresta, owners of The Pasta House Co., who plan to reopen the space as Tucci and Fresta’s Trattoria and Bar after a six-week, $100,000 makeover.
A press release from Del Pietro indicated that the final deal came together very quickly, but discussions with The Pasta House had apparently been in the works for some time. After initial talks broke off, Angela’s brother Michael had agreed to step in and open an operation similar to his Sugo’s/Babbo’s concept (the name: Ponzo’s Spaghetteria).
When Tucci and Fresta came back with a mutually-agreeable deal, however, Michael Del Pietro stepped away. “My hands were full already,” he said. “I was simply doing this to help my sister.”
According to Tucci, the new operation will be “more upscale than The Pasta House.” When asked why an upscale concept was chosen over something like Michael Del Pietro’s value-driven, let’s-keep-all-the-seats-full approach, Tucci replied, “That’s too close to what we do already; plus, Joe and I have been planning something like this for a long, long time, and now we’ve found the perfect place to do it.”
He emphasized that instead of having 40 pastas on the menu, the Trattoria will have “a dozen or so, none of them the same as at the Pasta House.” (Good, because that is the first comparison diners will make.) Tucci envisions a place “more along the lines of a Gitto’s or a Cafe Napoli,” that serves the full gamut of Italian-prepared proteins (which is fine with us, as long as they abstain from parading raw proteins out to the table ahead of time.)
So how do you think the Portabella space would best be utilized? With a recently-proven concept, or with a new offshoot from an established local institution?
