Without much fanfare, Italo, a new pasta house and wine bar, has slid into the corner space inside the Bank of America Corporate Center in Uptown Charlotte, taking over the longtime home of Cicchetti. The compact spot leans hard on handmade pasta and daily-baked focaccia, paired with a tight Italian wine list built for easy ordering. Its front door anchors the corner of Trade and College inside the BofA tower, a prime crossroads for pre- and post-show crowds looking for a quick, relaxed plate of carbs. The early May arrival keeps the theater-friendly layout intact, only now the spotlight is on sit-down pasta nights instead of small plates.
As reported by the Charlotte Business Journal, the Italo concept is steered by veteran restaurateurs Pierre Bader and Briana Cohen. That report notes a clear shift from Cicchetti's Venetian-style small plates to a menu that puts pasta front and center. Rather than a big new empire move, the transition is framed as a hyper-local reinvention of a small but strategic dining room.
What Italo Will Serve
According to Italo's website, the menu revolves around fresh, house-made pasta and focaccia baked daily with Molino Pasini flour imported from Lombardy. The site also highlights a wine list that "celebrates classic Italian regions" and encourages sharing, so expect bottles meant to linger over rather than rush through. Italo currently lists evening hours Tuesday through Saturday, and notes that an online reservations system is "coming soon."
Space's Backstory
The high-visibility corner at Trade and College has been home to Venetian-style wine bar Cicchetti since 2019 under Bader and partners, a history chronicled by Charlotte Stories. Cicchetti was conceived as a bacaro-style wine shop and small-plates hangout aimed at theatergoers and Uptown workers. That DNA goes a long way toward explaining why the compact footprint continues to attract operators chasing an intimate, built-in audience right off the plaza.
Italo explicitly tags the address as "(Formerly Cicchetti)," while Cicchetti's website still lists contact details and hours for 100 N Tryon. Taken together, those digital breadcrumbs suggest the handoff is fresh and the online housekeeping is still catching up. For now, diners should follow the Italo signage at the Bank of America tower entrance on Trade and College.
The switch also rides a broader local wave of pasta-focused openings, from a pasta market in Plaza Midwood to an Italian pasta bar planned for South End, as covered by Axios Charlotte and Axios Charlotte. That momentum gives Italo a small but energetic scene to tap into, especially for Uptown diners who want house-made pasta without heading to another neighborhood. Its modest size and focused offerings make it an obvious choice for pre-show twirls of tagliatelle or after-work glasses of red.
Guests can expect a short, seasonally rotating menu of pastas and shareable plates, along with a modest wine-by-the-bottle program geared toward conversation and take-home options. The restaurant sits at 100 N Tryon Street inside the Bank of America Corporate Center, and updates plus reservation details are posted on the restaurant's site as they roll out. This story will be updated as operators share more on formal opening plans or any special events.
