FRANKFORT — “Chi mangia bene vive bene” he who eats well, lives well.
That’s the motto of Vita Bella Italian Kitchen area and Industry, which will provide its 1st buyers on March 3 at 320 Principal St. in downtown Frankfort at the former site of Coho Cafe.
Vita Bella was opened by Ed Carella and Tim Potter, who observed there was a thing Frankfort’s cafe scene was lacking: reliable Italian meals.
“It really is very standard southern Italian cooking that’s my heritage, I’m a next generation Italian,” Carella reported. “My mom and dad were being each from Naples.”
Carella reported the focal point of Vita Bella is a 6,000 pound wooden fired pizza oven transported from California, which Carella utilizes to make Neapolitan-design and style pizza.
“Neapolitan-model pizzas were being traditionally made in wood-fired ovens,” Carella stated. “Wood has the means to burn up at really significant warmth and cook dinner the pizzas fast. The dough we are utilizing receives quite light and airy when baked in the wooden oven. Utilizing different woods like cherry, maple and ash increase a flavor ingredient in the pizza.”
Potter stated the oven can get to 800-900 levels and prepare dinner a pizza in a minute.
Diners will be able to attempt numerous types of pizza, like the margherita a vintage Neapolitan pizza with fresh new, residence made mozzarella, San-Marzano tomatoes and basil. Other pizza choices include a 4-cheese pizza, a mushroom pizza and a sopressata (dry Italian salami) pizza.
Vita Bella also will provide fresh new, handmade pasta, like spaghetti and meatballs, lasagna, carbonara and Bolognese. Rooster and seafood dishes, along with other Italian specialties like hen and eggplant parmesan are also on the menu.
The lunch and meal menus are unique, with panini sandwich lunch solutions changing pasta and evening meal entrees.
“For lunch we offer panini sandwiches and salads, as properly as Neapolitan avenue foods that are popular in Naples,” Carella said. “We’ve bought fritto misto (fried seafood-like fish, calamari and shrimp with greens) and Pizza A Portafoglio (folded pizza) points you can choose and eat on the street.”
Soups and desserts will also be obtainable.
As for the marketplace element, Carella said it will characteristic ready to take in meals like treats and sandwiches, but a small a lot more Italian concentrated things persons couldn’t come across in other places. It will also feature jars of Important Bella’s sauces and even pre-packaged entrees shoppers can get household.
A range of Italian beer and wine, as effectively as some local wines, will spherical out the collection.
“We were being seeking to be exclusive more than enough that folks couldn’t just go into Relatives Fare and come across,” Carella mentioned. “We want men and women to make the vacation over in this article and get that charcuterie board or handmade mozzarella.”
Vita Bella will features dine-in and choose-out services. Orders can be designed on the net, and supply may well be an selection in the potential.
Carella said Vita Bella would cater events, and hopes to keep some of his personal.
“As we go into the summertime and slide we’d like to target on unique gatherings like cooking courses or holiday gatherings,” he mentioned.
Each longtime visitors to Frankfort and the surrounding space, Carella and Potter mentioned the plan for Vita Bella came very long in the past, when they both of those saw a need to have for an reliable Italian restaurant in Frankfort.
“Tim (Potter) and I have recognized every other for a prolonged time and we’ve always experienced a passion for foodstuff and dining places, but also Frankfort,” Carella mentioned.
He said when he came up with the thought of opening a restaurant in Frankfort, the 1st particular person he termed was Potter. While they talked about opening an Italian restaurant in Frankfort, it wasn’t right up until Carella lost his task in a restaurant group in the COVID-19 pandemic through 2020 that they severely commenced chatting about opening an Italian cafe.
Potter was in a identical situation with his individual sports activities and party marketing organization in St. Louis.
“Suddenly there were being not a large amount of corporate outings or sporting gatherings,” Potter said. “I was in a tranquil stage in my everyday living. We begun conversing again and forth and I mentioned, ‘You know how you have constantly wanted an Italian cafe in Frankfort, were being you major?'”
Potter claimed they begun hunting for locations in Frankfort, and they loved the former site of the Coho Cafe.
“I made use of to appreciate heading to the Coho Cafe,” he explained. “I loved the location. Once Ed (Carella) commenced chatting about making it a current market, which is when it really begun to click on. There ended up worries of opening a restaurant in a pandemic, but consider out and get and go took some of all those away. Together with the attractive deck overlooking Betsie Bay for out of doors eating yr-round, it was a no-brainer.”
Vita Bella Italian Kitchen and Industry will be open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesdays and Thursdays, from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sunday. To see the menu or buy on-line, check out vitabellakitchen.com.