Italy Opens Up On Central Avenue In Downtown St. Pete

ST. PETERSBURG, FL —Less waiting and a simple way of ordering is part of the Italian food culture that Rome, Italy, native Federico Fanelli has incorporated into his new downtown St. Petersburg eatery, Italy Bottega.

"The first thing that is very important is this is not just another restaurant," Fanelli told Patch. "Absolutely not. We have a sandwich prep here, and we don't serve at a table. It's called bottega —in Italy, that's what we call it. It's more of a simple concept than at a restaurant. At a restaurant you wait to be seated, you wait for your server, you wait to look at a menu."

He explained that in Italy, bottegas are common and when people are ready to eat, they go inside, look at a menu and place their order at the counter. No waiting on a server to come around to your table.

Italy Bottega opened in St. Pete on June 3. The atmosphere feels welcoming and slightly cozy inside. Italian artwork that represents different Italian brands such as wine and candy are painted on two of the walls that are parallel to each other near the entrance. The back wall has a big orange map of Italy that is near featured bottles of Italian wines for the patrons to choose from.

Fanelli owned a bottega in Miami for three years, but decided to move to St. Pete because he likes the laid back atmosphere and the friendly attitudes. "I discovered St. Pete 18 years ago on my honeymoon," he said with a laugh. "That was my first time here, and I loved St. Pete."

Food manager and chef, Roberta Massetti is a native of Bologna, Italy, and also from Bologna is the famous lasagna bolognese dish. If you Google lasagna bolognese dish, 11,900,000 recipe results show up. Fanelli said that Massetti's native cooking skills makes her perfect for cooking the perfect lasagna and making lasagna bolognese, which his eatery offers among other Italian recipes, desserts and coffees.

Italy Bottega offers a variety of panini sandwiches with ingredients imported from Italy, ravioli dishes such as lobster ravioli, spinach & cheese ravioli, mushroom ravioli, tomino melt, eggplant parmigiana, caprese salad, bresaola (cured beef) salad and other menu items. For the full list, view at Italy Bottega.

A coffee specialty they offer is iced caffee creama. Fanelli said they are the only place that he knows of in St. Pete that offers this coffee dessert that is common for Italians to have after lunch or dinner. Caffee creama can be compared to a slush puppy because it does come out of a machine that resembles a slush machine, yet it is has a slightly sweet coffee taste with a soft and creamy texture.

Italy Bottega is located at 1045 Central Avenue, and their hours of operation are Tuesday through Sunday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.