Last February, chef Michael Hanna closed his pop-up services out of Hawthorne in Sylvan Park and started planning for his brick-and-mortar restaurant, St. Vito Focacceria. In July, it was announced that the location of St. Vito will be at 609 Overton Street in The Gulch.
This project, which has been a year in the making, will soon officially open. Construction on the structural engineering of the building is moving forward this week, with a timeline on track for an opening date in the first or second week of March, Hanna told What Now Nashville.
The restaurant will serve three to four main pizzas to anchor the menu, along with seasonally inspired pizzas, vegetable-forward shared plates and main entrees that will be protein-focused. Each pizza will be large enough for a serving size of four to five people to enjoy.
The style of pizza is unlike anything else that Nashville currently offers. The fluffy, focaccia-like dough is topped with a variety of high-quality ingredients and is uniquely traditional to Sicily.
Chef Hanna wants people to know that he intends to keep the tradition alive while still putting a fresh and modern take on the food.
“My main goal with St. Vito is to challenge myself to find forgotten, traditional foods that we can study and put our own whimsical spin on to make our own,” Hanna told What Now Nashville.
The restaurant bringing “sfincione” style to Nashville is currently hiring, announced on their Instagram in a post from Dec. 01.
