A stretch of Rice Mine Road in North Tuscaloosa is trading its coffee grounds for garlic and olive oil. Heritage House Coffee & Tea closed its North River shop in the building at 5600 Rice Mine Road NE, and the space has already been sold to a Mississippi restaurant group planning to open an Italian steakhouse called Ammalia Ristorante.
The closure ends a short chapter for what had been the third Heritage House location in Tuscaloosa, according to Tuscaloosa Thread. The coffeehouse brand said it announced the final day of business at its North River location with mixed emotions, per the same report. Heritage House continues to operate its Riverfront location on Jack Warner Parkway and its Town Center shop off McFarland Boulevard, both of which provide full kitchen service, the outlet notes.
Heritage House's roots in Tuscaloosa run deep. The brand was established in 1993 as the city's first locally owned coffeehouse, originally operating on Towncenter Boulevard, according to Heritage House Coffee & Tea. In 2005, Rebekah Wanstall became the company's third owner and expanded its specialty coffee selection and scratch-baked food menu across the city, per The Crimson White. Heritage House also operated its North River shop before it closed.
A Mississippi Restaurant Group's First Alabama Bet
Taking over the space is Ammalia Ristorante, a project from Ronnie Gashi and his partners, who bought the restaurant building outright after beginning their search for a location more than two years before the story published, the Tuscaloosa Thread report states. Gashi operates five Italian restaurants in Mississippi, and he and cousin Florian Imeri run locations in Oxford, Tupelo, Brandon, Clinton and Columbus, per the same account. Imeri serves as executive chef across the group, and the restaurants share similar menus and decor, the report adds.
The Mississippi restaurants carry distinct names tied to their cities: the Oxford and Brandon locations are both called Amore, the Clinton restaurant is Roma, the Tupelo location is Casa D'Italia, and the newest of the five, opened in Columbus, is Amata.
Gashi and Imeri's path to Mississippi restaurateurs began well before any of those openings. The cousins emigrated from northern Albania to New York, where they fell in love with Italian cooking before building their restaurant group, starting in Oxford and later expanding into four other Mississippi cities, according to The Commercial Dispatch.
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Commercial real estate agent Neal DiChiara announced the property deal and said the property fit the clients' vision, per Tuscaloosa Thread's reporting.
Ammalia Ristorante plans to open in January or February 2027, per Ronnie Gashi, and will feature a steakhouse concept alongside mostly southern Italian cuisine, according to the Tuscaloosa Thread story. Southern Italian cooking typically leans on Mediterranean ingredients and extra-virgin olive oil rather than the heavier butter-based sauces associated with Northern Italy, the outlet explains. Gashi said plans for the restaurant are still preliminary, and he and his partners want to maintain some mystery about the concept until it's closer to opening.
For now, the former Heritage House shop is set to become an outpost for Gashi and Imeri's restaurant group. Municipal permitting, renovation work, and the finalized menu remain open questions as the early 2027 target approaches.
