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Especially in Italy, where the owners’ families still live and have no idea their offspring have gotten involved in launching a new restaurant.
“They will be worried about what we’re doing,” laughs Sladjana Pinna, spokesperson for the new restaurant, which opened Sept. 9 at 10906 105 Ave. near MacEwan University. “We do have a wall of pictures that we decided to put our family in Italy on, including the grandpas and grandmas that are passed now. It’s a family wall that reminds us where we come from and what our family is about. They don’t know about that, either.”
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La Prosciutteria was conceived as something different from stereotypical Italian offerings like pasta and pizza, focusing instead on charcuterie boards, antipasti and sandwiches. Pinna, her husband Stefano, and their two friends Valerio Greco and Paolo Pinna (no relation) came up with the idea almost as a joke while sitting around the table back in February of this year. It’s not a particularly new concept; on a trip back to their homeland of Italy last summer, Sladjana Stefano ate at a number of popular eateries utilizing it.
“We were really missing that,” she says. “That aperitivo experience where around 6 o’clock you sit down with friends, have a good glass of wine, and then you eat some good cheese, meat and bread. Basically dinner, but with healthy and satisfying food. I mean, fine dining is still good, but it’s kind of an older style of Italian. We thought, ‘Hey, why not open something like what we had in Italy?’ ”
If this seems like the action of a few culinary dilettantes, it isn’t. Stefano was co-owner and executive chef at Bottega on 104, while Greco and Paolo Pinna work in the construction trade. When the decor and design shop Cosa Fina decided to downsize in March, they were given the opportunity to take a corner and began doing renovations themselves.
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“We were looking for that European style,” says Sladjana. “So, big windows and very bright with a lot of lights. We found a 1960s Vespa scooter in Lethbridge which we put next to a wall with a mural of the streets of Italy so it can be Instagrammable.”
The Vespa isn’t the only product that comes directly from Italy. Meat and cheese are imported directly through a Calgary supplier, with salami, fresh mozzarella and burrata brought in every two weeks from the mother country. Cocktails and Italian beer are on the menu, while the wine choices are constantly shifting, including a few selections from countries like Portugal and the U.S.
“We don’t want to be selfish and make everything about Italy,” Pinna laughs. “That wouldn’t be very nice!”
Vons moves downtown
“We just wanted to get the ball rolling, our staff was getting anxious,” says Himmy Dhaliwal, owner-operator of the restaurant, which closed down its long-standing south side location in May once the lease came up.
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After scoping out a few locations, Dhaliwal went with a spot right in the heart of downtown, 10065 Jasper Ave. After being buried just off Whyte Avenue since 1988, this has opened up more possibilities for the restaurant.
“I’ve had my eyes on downtown for a while,” Dhaliwal admits. “I just think that for the concept we have it’s a better fit. We got to double our operational hours. Back on the south-side location we were only doing dinner. Now, we’re going to be serving lunch and dinner.”
With a new location comes slight tweaks to the menu and the name. Instead of the original Vons Steak House and Oyster Bar, the business is now officially Vons Steak House and Raw Bar.
“We’ve added a sushi element to the mix,” Dhaliwal confirms. “This is a plan that we’ve had for something like three or four years since we purchased the (restaurant) around seven years ago. We wanted to do that pretty much when we bought it, we just didn’t get around to it until now.”
Dhaliwal sees the move as a natural one for Vons, which suffered from lack of visibility in the Strathcona area.
“The lunch crowd is tough on Whyte,” he sighs. “That scene is mostly around office buildings, and crossing the river is something people don’t usually do to eat at noon — it’s difficult for people to do that. So where we are we have a lot of office buildings around us, which makes it a lot easier for us. It just makes more sense.”
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AGA gets award-winning chefs
As of this week, the Edmonton Convention Centre has taken over the role of events, catering and facility booking services at the gallery, which means executive chef Serge Belair and his team are now in charge of the culinary side of things.
“We started the conversation a few months ago and looked at it from a perspective that we have an existing expertise, certainly from a culinary perspective when it comes to major events,” says Arlindo Gomes, vice-president of business development and venues for Explore Edmonton, which runs the ECC. “It’s been a really comfortable journey for both of us because we feel that we’re both aligned in so many ways.”
What the AGA gains from this is the experience of expert chefs like Belair, who won bronze at the Canadian Culinary Championship in Ottawa back in February, and executive pastry chef Jason Wang, who will be competing at the 2024 IKA/Culinary Olympics. Sous chef Frances Flores recently won gold at the Global Chef Challenge — Americas Regional Semi-Finals in Santiago, Chile. Gomes notes that while the ECC won’t be involved in opening a new restaurant they’ll still be using Belair and his team’s expertise at functions and rentals.
“It’s a good fit to have these iconic Edmonton venues like the Art Gallery and the Convention Center working together,” says Gomes. “We both benefit from the partnership.”
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