This week, restaurateur Mike Del Pietro opened one restaurant door and closed another.
Il Palato (222 S. Bemiston), his fine-dining Italian restaurant in Clayton, will close after service on May 2. At the same time, Del Pietro is preparing to debut a long-awaited new concept, Cibo Italia (7489 Delmar), located about a mile away in a former Sinclair service station at Hanley and Delmar. The restaurant will officially open for breakfast and lunch on May 4, with dinner service, including happy hour, tentatively set to begin May 11.
Del Pietro also owns two locations of Sugo’s Spaghetteria, in Frontenac and Edwardsville.
The Closure
Del Pietro cites three main reasons for closing Il Palato. First, he owns the building that houses Cibo Italia, eliminating rent. Second, he prefers to focus his time at a single restaurant. And third, Cibo will offer a similar dinner menu in a more casual setting.
Cibo Italia’s evening menu will feature house-made pastas in two portion sizes, classico-style pizzas, and a small selection of entrées. “I see it as an upscale Sugo’s, which is how I viewed Il Palato,” Del Pietro says.
During the day, the menu will focus on coffee, pastries, and savory breakfast dishes. Lunch and afternoon offerings will include pizza by the slice—both New York and Roman styles—along with Italian sandwiches and salads topped with grilled proteins.
“I had a great seven-year run at Il Palato,” Del Pietro explains, “but it required me to be there constantly—and I’m too old to split time between places every night. Plus, I’d really rather be in a building I own that has a nice patio and its own parking lot.
The Backstory
Il Palato (Italian for “the palate”) opened in March 2019 in the former Remy’s space in Clayton. The kitchen was led by executive chefs Tim Adams—whose résumé includes Pastaria, Spiaggia, and Ricardo’s Italian Café—and Jordan Knight of The Blue Duck.
The menu leaned toward lighter Southern Italian, Sicilian, and Mediterranean cuisine, a shift from Del Pietro’s earlier focus on heartier Northern Italian fare.
The space featured a 90-seat dining room and a 20-seat patio. Inside, buff leather and tweed chairs added warmth to the sleek interior. A cove-lit, coffered ceiling visually connected the dining room and bar, while an L-shaped banquette framed the gray-carpeted dining area.
Prices reflected the restaurant’s quality ingredients and technique and presented some of the best value in town: an eggplant melanzana appetizer substantial enough for a main course for $14, an $8 Caesar salad, pasta dishes in the low $20s, and a pan-roasted breaded pork chop for $28.
Del Pietro says he’ll keep a similar pricing approach at Cibo. “I think that dining out should be accessible to everyone,” he says. “I’ve always been comfortable keeping prices fair and reasonable, and that’s not something I intend to change.”
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