The owners of the cozy long-running Italian restaurant
Caffe Nonnaon Murphy Road are opening a new place next door, called Nonna’s Pizzeria and Wine Bar.
Daniel Maggipinto, who owns both places with his business partner Bob Sillers, told me they figured the neighborhood needed a nice little place to drink wine, and pizzas baked in a wood-fired oven seemed like an excellent complement to that.
Caffe Nonna veteran John Michael Thurman is crafting the wine list, which Maggipinto said will draw from vineyards around the world, focusing on small family-owned wineries.
If Caffe Nonna is cozy, the new place will be ultra-cozy: just 40 seats in 600 square feet. A garage door in front will roll up for dining in the fresh air when the weather is nice.
And if you need any more motivation to check it out, Maggipinto says the new place will use products from Nonna's Gourmet Foods, a business he set up to raise funds for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the Zoë Marie Brain Tumor Research Fund. Maggipinto lost his daughter, Zoë, to a rare form of brain cancer that strikes children younger than 3. All the proceeds from the sales of Nonna's Gourmet Foods (which include Nonna's popular marinara and arrabiata sauces and chianti jelly) go to fight childhood illnesses.
Located at 4427 Murphy Road, Nonna’s Pizzeria and Wine Bar is expected to open sometime in October.
