If you’re a pasta lover, well Yaletown is getting a new spot.
And it’s from the folks behind some of the most popular Italian spots in Vancouver.
The highly anticipated Rosalia Osteria, from brothers Dom and Frank Morra, opens at 1127 Mainland Street on November 6.
Regular dinner service technically starts November 7, from 4 p.m. seven nights a week.
When we first reported on the project in June, the team was aiming for late summer.
The bigger news now is who’s cooking.
Phil Scarfone has joined as Culinary Director.
He was the opening head chef at both Nightingale and Elio Volpe, and later Culinary Director of Banda Volpi.
He was also the runner-up on Season 7 of Top Chef Canada, with 21 years in kitchens ranging from fine dining to rustic Italian.
“My food is grounded in seasonality and simplicity, which is inherently an Italian approach,” Scarfone says.
He says the menu will have the classics, with “our own small tweaks” to each one.
Scarfone and the Morras built the kitchen team together, and he’ll work alongside head chef Kaden.
Every pasta on the menu is fresh and made in house.
The mainstays are spaghetti, rigatoni, lasagna and gnocchi, plus specials that rotate weekly.
The team is also pointing to a traditional lasagna and a slow-cooked Sunday sugo, with a focused wine list and classic Italian cocktails.
That Sunday sugo ties back to the name.
The restaurant is named after the brothers’ grandmother, and they say it grew out of the Sunday dinners “where pasta was the main attraction that brought families together.”
The room is small but homey.
At 600 sq.ft, Rosalia seats 33 people, with 13 inside and 20 on a garden-inspired courtyard patio.
Tomlenovich Design did the space in soft rose tones with European details.
It’s the newest Italian spot from the Morras, who also run Via Tevere, Dante Italian Sandwich, Don’t Argue Pizza and Straight Outta Brooklyn.
It also brings fresh pasta back to the Mainland Street room that Robba da Matti left after about 14 years, under a completely different team.
Takeout and lunch service are planned shortly after opening, so for now Rosalia is a dinner-only spot.
Rosalia Osteria joins other recent Vancouver openings like LOCAL Pizza, The Moon Martini Bar & Restaurant and Armani Caffè.
Address
1127 Mainland Street, Vancouver, BC
