A Food Network Chopped champion is bringing a new Italian restaurant to Montclair's South Willow Street, filling the space left behind when an eco-friendly furniture retailer packed up for a bigger showroom. Basta Alla Pasta, an intimate 50-seat BYOB concept from chef Joseph Gramaglia, is set to occupy roughly 1,800 square feet at 5 South Willow Street, with construction expected to begin in mid-October and an opening targeted for early 2027.
Gramaglia is already the chef and operating partner at Saly G's Restaurant + Tavern in Warren, New Jersey, a post he has held for more than 16 years, according to Montclair Girl. His flagship restaurant, located at 169 Washington Valley Road, has built a reputation for seasonal Italian-American cuisine, according to Visit Somerset County NJ. Gramaglia's culinary pedigree got a national boost in December 2020, when he won the Chopped episode “Pickle Panic” — Season 47, Episode 25 — and took home a $10,000 grand prize.
That Chopped win did more than pad his résumé. Gramaglia reinvested the prize money into an upscale interior renovation at Saly G's in October 2021, hiring an interior designer to modernize the restaurant after his television victory, per Patch. Basta Alla Pasta represents something more personal for the chef, described as his own passion project. Gramaglia, a first-generation American, is drawing on recipes, techniques, and traditions passed down through his family for the new menu, which will center on pasta alongside authentic Italian appetizers and salads.
An Old-School New York Feel With Modern Flourishes
The concept, in development for more than a year, aims to combine traditional Italian food with what the team calls a fresh, exciting, and distinctive approach. The dining room will lean into an old-school New York City Italian feel, featuring dark green leather banquettes, booths, and mosaic-style tile floors, with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and other classic Italian and New York standards playing in the background. Gramaglia and his team say they want to preserve an intimate atmosphere even as they build out a broader concept and brand around Basta Alla Pasta.
The restaurant is pitched as an alternative to a typical Italian BYOB in a town that already counts more than a dozen dedicated Italian restaurants and pizzerias, per the same Montclair Girl report. Its arrival adds to a stretch of Montclair dining news that has moved quickly this year — Hoodline previously reported on the closure of Korean bakery Tous Les Jours after 20 months and plans for a new steakhouse in a former bank building, underscoring how fast commercial space turns over along the town's main corridors.
Why the Space Opened Up
The 5 South Willow Street address became available after Urban Natural Home, an eco-friendly furniture retailer founded in Bloomfield in 2014 by local resident Ali Qari, relocated to a larger showroom inside Montclair's historic Lackawanna Station at 1 Lackawanna Plaza in early 2026, according to Montclair Girl. Urban Natural had expanded to the South Willow Street site back in 2023 before outgrowing it. The block sits within Montclair's Downtown Arts District, a $135 million mixed-use redevelopment zone anchored by the Two South Willow project near the historic Wellmont Theater, which is bringing 200 residential units and a 15,000-square-foot public pedestrian plaza to the area, according to Arterial LLC.
Skipping the Liquor License Fight
Basta Alla Pasta's BYOB model is not just an aesthetic choice — it's a practical one. Under a 1947 New Jersey statute that caps plenary retail consumption liquor licenses at one per 3,000 residents, Montclair is limited to roughly 13 full bar licenses spread across nearly 300 restaurants, according to Montclair Pod. That scarcity has pushed private secondary-market license sales above $1 million to $1.25 million, making a full liquor license one of the most expensive commercial permits in the state.
Rather than compete for one of those scarce licenses, several Montclair BYOB restaurants have found workarounds, including partnerships with licensed New Jersey wineries such as Alba Vineyard and Beneduce Vineyards, which can sell bottles on-site under state farm winery licenses without charging corkage fees, the outlet's reporting notes. Meanwhile, New Jersey's hospitality landscape keeps shifting at the state level — lawmakers made cocktails-to-go permanent for licensed food and beverage establishments in August, a policy that started as pandemic-era relief and has now become a fixture of state law.
The Montclair Center Business Improvement District, which advocates for more than 300 downtown businesses along South Willow Street and Bloomfield Avenue, oversees the commercial corridor where Basta Alla Pasta will open. With construction slated to begin in mid-October and doors expected to open in early 2027, Gramaglia's family recipes will soon get a permanent home just steps from the Wellmont Theater.
