Italian Restaurant Scotto's Luogo to Open in the Gulch

The Gulch space previously home to Pemrose and Fin and Pearl and anchoring the ground floor of mixed-used tower Twelve Twelve is slated to see the opening by year’s end of upscale Italian restaurant Luogo.

New York-based restaurateur Anthony Scotto said in a release Luogo will be his first concept located outside the Empire State.

The announcement follows Nashville-based developer Ray Hensler having sold in August 2021 the street-level real estate for $5.85 million (read here). The address of the 6,780-square-foot space is 211 12th Ave. S.

Terms of Scotto’s lease with the ownership group (an LLC that includes local attorney Charles Robert Bone and Steve Moore, a former CMA president) and the cost to get operational are not being disclosed. Nashville-based Manuel Zeitlin Architects is handling interior design work.

The release notes Luogo will offer — as a “nod to a longstanding Scotto family tradition” — a communal table and weekly “Sunday Supper.” The Luogo menu will include grilled pizza margherita, veal and chicken Bolognese and eggplant and zucchini pie, among other dishes.

Scotto is the co-author of three cookbooks and has appeared on The Today Show, Live With Kelly and Ryan and The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

“Like many New Yorkers, my family and I have fallen in love with Music City and it’s hospitality community,” says Scotto, who opened Fresco by Scotto in November 1993, in the release. “After years of frequent visits, we already feel like Nashville is home. We’re looking forward to settling into Nashville’s exciting and dynamic restaurant scene.”

Scotto created Fresco on the Go, a catering firm that works with charities such as City Meals on Wheels, and also has worked in advisory and consultation roles with the New York Yankees, Brooklyn Nets and Live Nation to help with VIP area hospitality and catering. He and wife Theresa Scotto have a daughter, Gabriella, who has lived in Nashville.

Pemrose closed when the pandemic hit in early 2020.

With a main entrance of 1212 Laurel St., the 23-story Twelve Twelve comprises, in addition to the restaurant space, 286 high-end condominiums.

This article originally ran via our sister publication, the Nashville Post.