MONEY

Concord Pike gets new Italian restaurant

Maureen Milford
The News Journal
  • The casual restaurant will seat 150.
  • %22Americanized Italian%22 food will be served.
  • A small Italian market will be found within the restaurant.

For Joseph Grabowski, 63, one of the managers at the Charcoal Pit, the construction underway next door to the 58-year-old hamburger joint offers the promise of a little food court on the southern end of Concord Pike in Talleyville.

"I'm hoping it will be another draw card and bring more people here," said Grabowski, who has been at the iconic shakes-and-sandwiches restaurant for more than 20 years. "I get asked about it at least twice a day."

Long the location of a gas station, the site south of the Charcoal Pit is being redeveloped by Louis J. Capano III as the commercial strip's newest Italian restaurant. The 150-seat Bella Coast is expected to open before the end of the year.

Capano, whose father bought the Charcoal Pit in 1986, has teamed up with Eric Sugrue of the Big Fish Restaurant Group. The business arrangement between Capano and Sugrue calls for Capano to own the land and building while Sugrue will operate the restaurant business.

Sugrue's restaurant group includes Big Fish Grill in Rehoboth Beach, on the Wilmington Riverfront and in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania; FireStone on the Wilmington Riverfront; Summer House in Rehoboth Beach; Salt Air in Rehoboth Beach; and the Crab House in Rehoboth Beach.

Italian restaurant Bella Coast is expected to open by the end of the year on Concord Pike, near Charcoal Pit, in Talleyville.

Capano said he thinks Bella Coast is "a good fit for North Wilmington."

Sugrue agrees.

"I wouldn't have done it if I didn't think it was," said Sugrue, who founded the Big Fish Restaurant Group in 1997 with his brother Norman. "I think it's a great location."

The venture will employ about 60 people, including wait staff, manager and chefs. Hiring is underway, Sugrue said.

According Sugrue, the casual restaurant will feature "Americanized Italian" food, although the menu has not been firmed up. The restaurant's website says Bella Coast will offer a variety of simple Italian dishes, including seafood dishes and pasta. There will be a small Italian market within the restaurant. And in a twist for the heavily-traveled highway, the restaurant will have outdoor dining on the side of the building, Sugrue said.

The building was designed by Architectural Alliance of Brandywine Hundred. Kevin Wilson, a principal in the firm, said the design is a contemporary aesthetic with traditional elements.

"We wanted to bring in some of Old World architecture in a very contemporary, modern way," Wilson said.

Capano doesn't seem to attach any particular significance to the name. "We kicked around so many ideas, and we just sort of landed on this one," Capano said.

Meanwhile, Capano is fielding questions from the curious about when the doors will open for business.

"I'm looking forward to the restaurant opening. It's about time we had something good on Concord Pike," Wilson said.

Contact Maureen Milford at (302) 324-2881 or mmilford@delawareonline.com.