John-Paul Gagliano has mastered the art of opening up hip, modern restaurants. He opened Tonica downtown in October, 2025. Now, he’s about to open another one.
Gagliano, 34, owner of Libro at Laurelood, Ecco, and two locations of Tonica, is slated to open Artista in the new Memphis Art Museum on Front Street and Union Avenue.
Artista, which will be operated independently from the museum, will have its own entrance. There also will be a designated parking garage for the restaurant.
The restaurant originally was going to open in January, but Gagliano says, ‘We’ve now pushed to mid February. They’re still doing some buildouts.”
He originally was going to name the new restaurant “Libro,” but “libro” in Italian stands for “books.” “Artista” is Italian for “artist,’’ which was “more appropriate for the title, being in an art museum.”
The restaurant, which will seat 99 people, has 20-foot ceilings with sound barriers. “We have private dining towards the back. Then a nice glass facade that overlooks Front street.”
The restaurant’s modern decor was designed by Dryden Studio in Nashville.
Near the entrance is a corner spot that would be perfect for a piano, Gagliano says. “I’m working with the Art Museum to get a piano in there.”
Artista, which is slated to be open seven days a week with lunch and dinner and Sunday brunch, will include some of the “big sellers at Libro,” including house-made bread, ravioli, burgers, paninis, chicken salad, salmon salad, and desserts. But it will also include several new items.
Artista’s menu will cater more to downtown tastes, he says: “Downtown and East Memphis are two totally different clienteles. Two totally different demographics.’
Like Libro, Artista will cater to the area’s “quick lunch clientele,” which includes those working in law offices, health care, and other businesses, who “need to come in and grab something that’s still good quality and something they can eat quickly and head back to their job. Four to six entrees, six to seven salad and pasta options, and five to seven sandwich options.”
Artista won’t serve breakfast, because the museum will have a coffee cart available during the morning. The restaurant will be open 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. “And then, like Libro, close from 2:30 to 4 and open back up at 4:30. We might go a little later — 4:30 to 9. And in between those hours you can still come in and have small plates at the bar along with cocktails and wine. That will be open, but we’ll have to reset for dinner.”
People can book parties at Artista, Gagliano says. He also be working with the museum to cater events on the top floor with its “huge window facade” that overlooks the Mississippi River.
Gagliano, who opened up the downtown Tonica a few blocks from the museum at 265 South Front Street, seemingly has more energy than five men. He’s already working on new projects, including something else downtown “in the very near future.” But he’s not yet ready to disclose what that will be.
“I feel Memphis has this rap of negativity that stems around it. You see a lot of businesses struggling. You see a lot of businesses downtown failing. I don’t know why I feel this way, but somewhere within me I want to make it my purpose to revive a lot of things.”
“In order to keep guests going downtown, we need to continue building downtown to support the businesses downtown. I’m trying to be ahead of the curve,” he says. “And be part of the reason downtown is revived.”
