By reporter Steven Smalley
Construction continues at the restaurant location previously occupied by Rudy?s Place at 34th Avenue West and West Emerson Street, with workers laboring furiously both inside and outside the structure. Inquiries to the Magnolia Voice tips hotline prompted some questions of our own to the proprietor of the soon-to-be Italian venue with a new moniker, The Villa.
?The restaurant is going to open by the end of March or first of April,? reveals Stefan Petrov, owner, chef, and graduate of Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Art here in Seattle.
?Final touches take time,? says Petrov, who also operates his other restaurant, Verona Pizza, which will stay open in Burien.
The latest restaurant will hold nearly 40 people, plus more in the bar, and will offer?an American-infused Italian menu with entrees averaging $16.
Petrov promises dinners at first, which will include plenty of Northwest seafood. Lunches and breakfast could be introduced later, although still in the planning stages, with tentative notions for a bakery and coffee shop as well. Weekend brunch?will be served nearly all day Saturday and Sunday. ?We are keeping our options open,? he says.
Bistro-style dining will highlight a casual atmosphere, sans white linen tablecloths, notes Petrov. ?Families are welcome,? says the man who has two children of his own. ?The bar is separated from the restaurant and will be nothing like the previous (incarnation),? he assures.
Chef Petrov says he will spend most of his time in the kitchen concentrating on food quality during the initial launch, although look for him to run all aspects of the operation.
Originally from Bulgaria, Petrov came here in 1999 and lives with his wife in Queen Anne.
“Chef Petrov says he will spend most of his time in the kitchen concentrating on food quality during the initial launch” OK– I guess I will go when he is there.
I am excited to have a local restaurant that we can stop in
at. I wish it was something other than Italian
since Italian is usually not very healthy.
If it has healthy options (low saturated fat and seafood or meatless
options), I can see us frequenting it.
Fingers Crossed.
I hope it doesn’t snow all the time like it did when the building housed Rudy’s.
I was excited until you said Italian. We already have a plethora of Italian and pizza in and around the village. Too bad.
Some good Italian might work though.
I wish the owners well and welcome them to Magnolia. Obviously if the food is good, people will come. But since we have relatively limited dining choices compared to other neighborhoods, I agree with other posters that it’s hard to get overly excited about more Italian. I’m surprised that some enterprising individual hasn’t realized that we’re desperately in need of good sushi around here. (Sorry Ichiro, I’m sticking with the tempura.) Pretty sad for a place with the ocean at its doorstep. If Chef Petrov wants to consider filling a real void in the Magnolia dining scene, he could also consider serving breakfast and/or brunch. Espresso is an Italian invention after all, so maybe that’s a start.
I really agree about the sushi. But quality sushi requires a lot of customers (for the restaurant to buy the better grade, obviously the grade you or I would prefer to eat, because it is safer). It would take a leap of faith to believe there would be enough turnover of the sushi each day in our village to justify the cost (I also don’t order sushi at Ichiros for that reason). Cheaper grade sushi sells well at places like Blue C, where crowds go for the show and the quality of the fish is borderline. Sadly, most restaurants fail, but the ones that do well fill an exact niche and I agree about a breakfast place..or a quality Asian takeout better than the one down by Whole Foods
Does chef realise that two other Itallian restaurants with $16 entree average failed there?