Chef Carla Pellegrino is bringing her Italia-Americana cooking to Victory Park this week, as her new restaurant, Urban Italia, opens for dinner this Friday in the former WFAA studio at 3030 Nowitzki Way. The 5,500-square-foot space packs in an indoor dining room, an indoor-outdoor bar and a roomy patio that together seat roughly 250 guests. Pellegrino partnered with Dallas-based Tivona Group on the project, which the team describes as coastal Italian flair meets bright natural wood and open sightlines. After nearly three years of planning the space, the team will kick things off with dinner service and fold in lunch at a later date.
As reported by CultureMap Dallas, the menu leans into what the team calls "Italia-Merica," featuring hand-tossed Neapolitan-style pizzas, housemade pastas like fettuccine al ragù bolognese and cappelletti carciofi & prosciutto, and mains such as chicken Milanese and American wagyu sirloin au poivre. Appetizers include jumbo lump crab cocktail and baked clams, while the bar will shake and stir signature cocktails like the Milano Bianco and the Sicilia Espresso Martini. The rollout starts with dinner service, with lunch to be added down the line.
Bar program and the room
The restaurant's beverage program, developed by award-winning mixologist Yangdup Lama, aims to pair classic Italian flavors with contemporary techniques, The Dallas Observer reports. Designers at Fusion AE gave the 5,500-square-foot room a bright, airy feel with plenty of natural wood and a spacious patio set up for year-round seating. Urban Italia also includes a private dining room designed to host events and larger groups.
About Carla Pellegrino
Pellegrino is a Top Chef alum who trained at the French Culinary Institute and has led restaurants from New York's Baldoria to Rao's Las Vegas, according to her Bravo TV profile. She has cooked at the James Beard House and appeared on television competitions, credits that have followed her through a series of openings and relaunches across the country. The Dallas outpost is her latest chance to blend Old World technique with an American spin on Italian classics.
Partner Sanjay Joshi, who operates the project through Tivona Group, praised the location's visibility and called the former WFAA space "the perfect home" for the concept, The Dallas Morning News reported. Pellegrino and Joshi previously teamed up on Teatro Bistro in Grapevine, a downtown spot the chef opened last year that anchors her North Texas presence. The Teatro collaboration underscores the local roots behind Urban Italia's Dallas debut.
Urban Italia joins a wave of new eateries landing in Victory Park as the neighborhood builds out dining options around events at the American Airlines Center and a growing office crowd, according to Visit Dallas. The restaurant will begin dinner service this Friday, and the team says bookings and private-dining inquiries will be handled through the restaurant's channels as service ramps up. For now, fans of Pellegrino can look for pizzas, pastas and a cocktail program geared toward late-night crowds and game-day traffic.
