Porta Via to Close

West Nashville restaurant Porta Via Italian Kitchen will cease operations on Sunday, April 7, ending a 15-year run at the location.

The owners of the business, located within a retail strip center at 21 White Bridge Road, announced the closing via social media, with Nashville Business Journal seemingly the first local media entity to report.

Mehrdad Alviri serves as general manager of Porta Via and announced the closing, citing health concerns. NBJ reports that Porta Via chef Rosario De Luca is planning a restaurant for the space.

Porta Via Italian Kitchen is known for its Neapolitan-style pizza, a specific pie that is certified under Italian government standards via L’Associazone Verace Pizza Napoletana. The business is a reincarnation, of sorts, of a casual restaurant that served sandwiches and pasta for many years in various Bellevue locations, including the since-closed Bellevue Mall. For a time, Porta Via operated franchise locations in Atlanta, Hendersonville and Murfreesboro. Those have since shuttered. 

The Nashville Post noted in 2010 that SwissAir pilot Stefano Hugh started the restaurant in 1990 to re-create some of the sandwiches he sampled during his travels. These included bolillos: crisp, stuffed rolls found in Latin countries.

This article was first published via our sister publication, the Nashville Post.