If you love Little Italy on Union Avenue, you’re going to love Little Italy at Poplar Avenue and Massey Road.
The restaurant, which is slated to open in late May, will be at 6300 Poplar Avenue, Suite 113.
The owners refer to it as “Little Italy East,” says Molly McDonald Marciano, who, along with her husband, Riccardo Marciano, and Giovanni and Brooke Caravello, are the restaurant owners.
The Caravellos are the owners of the Union Avenue Little Italy location. Giovanni, who is from Sicily, and Riccardo, who is from Calabria, met in Memphis, says Molly, who is from here. “They met through an Italian group here.”
According to Brooke, all the Little Italy restaurants are under the Little Italy franchise umbrella, but the Bartlett and Downtown locations are independently owned and operated. They might have slight differences, but they maintain the same core menu and the same standard of fresh homemade ingredients, she says.
The new restaurant is “being run and owned by two guys that moved to the United States 15 years ago who couldn’t speak a word of English and, by way of New York, both got married and, for different reasons, moved to Memphis,” Molly says.
“One thing they both love about the South vs. New York is the idea of Southern hospitality that rings through in Italy. As far South as you go in Italy, the warmer the hospitality becomes.”
The new Little Italy menu will be “for the most part” like the Little Italy on Union Avenue, Molly says. “We’re definitely adding and taking away a few things.”
And, she says, there will be “some really good tweaks.”
For instance, Riccardo will make a Calabrian-style panino and Giovanni will make a Sicilian-style panino.
They’ll serve “New York-style pizza with a little flair.”
And they’ll offer a Nutella Pizza.
Pasta dishes, which are not on the menu at the Union Avenue location, include dishes with carbonara and amatriciana sauces.
They’ll serve beer, but they’ll also serve wine, which is something that’s not available at the Union Avenue location, Molly says.
Like Little Italy on Union, the east location will be a pick-up-and-go spot, but they also will have about 40 seats, Molly says.
They will string patio lights across the top of the restaurant to help give it an “Italian piazza-type feel,” Molly says. They want Little Italy to be a “warm place to come and eat comfort food.”
She knows Giovanni will be playing “all the soccer games” on TV. So, it will be a “very family-friendly environment. But also a fun place for me to go with girlfriends and have a glass of wine.”