A chunk of night-life history settles into the present at Sfuzzi Dallas, located on the bend of Cedar Springs at Routh and Cole, and, more important, at the intersection of commerce between veteran restaurateur Robert Colombo, club operator Matthew Giese and chef Avner Samuel.
The three have been local fixtures for decades. Now they’re collaborating. VSP Hospitality, created by real estate developer Mehrdad Moayedi with Giese and Andrea Pambechy, acquired the Sfuzzi trademark. They tagged Samuel as VSP Hospitality’s culinary director. Colombo stays in the frame as a consultant to Sfuzzi.
Sfuzzi (pronounced FOO-zee) was one of the great Dallas brands of the 1980s and ’90s in its first incarnation on McKinney Avenue. The wood-fired pizzas and frozen Bellinis fueled many a deal-sealing third date or fervent after-work escapade. But overexpansion led to collapse. Then after 13 years, in 2010, a chastened reset of the restaurant opened across from the original site. That closed on New Year’s Eve.
The new Sfuzzi, sleek and shimmering at one end of the Gables Villa Rosa development, seems more of a piece with the storied original in terms of design and the vibe. At 7,000 square feet, including the adjoining Grotto Bar, it’s spacious and airy in contrast to the cramped, chopped-up Sfuzzi (Electric Boogaloo), which strained to pull plebeians from all those pubs along McKinney.
The look aims for “modern Tuscan villa,” with neutral colors in the ironwork, white oak furnishings and Venetian plaster. Oversized Italian cinema stills from the ’60s enliven the walls. The separate Grotto Bar goes for a darker vision, with brick-lined walls and ceiling. Points given for a bar you can walk around; points taken for too many TVs.
On one subdued, soft-opening Sunday, the clientele at Sfuzzi blended old school and new. Colombo was on the floor, glad-handing as ever, while Adam Cleland of Winstons Supperclub huddled with some other new barbarians at a booth and label-conscious athletic wear-wearers at a long table ignored each other, punching vigorously away at their smartphones.
Sfuzzi opens daily at 4 p.m.
VSP Hospitality plans to open Parquet nightclub in March. It’s in the former Lift Lounge and Medici space at Cedar Springs and Maple Avenue.
Sfuzzi Dallas, 2600 Cedar Springs Road, Dallas. 214-390-7711. sfuzzidallas.com.
