Elisabetta’s Ristorante, Bar and Pizzeria, led by Big Time Restaurant Group’s corporate culinary director Lisabet Summa, will open its second location in January on the waterfront in West Palm Beach, Florida. The first Elisabetta’s opened in July 2019 on Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach, Florida.
The 300-seat, 10,000-square-foot restaurant includes a massive multi-tiered patio overlooking the Intracoastal Waterway. The patio will feature a regulation-size bocce ball court, a 25-foot-tall fireplace, an indoor/outdoor bar, a 19th century gelato cart, an outside pizza oven and two vintage gazebos. In addition, the restaurant will feature a 12-seat private dining room.
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Elisabetta’s executive chef will be Andris Salmanis, a Big Time Restaurant Group veteran who most recently served as the executive chef at the Delray Beach location. The general manager will be Drew Shane, who also joins the restaurant from Elisabetta’s in Delray Beach.
As a “sister” restaurant to Louie Bossi’s in Fort Lauderdale, Elisabetta’s has a scratch kitchen, and the menu features many of that restaurant’s classic dishes, like in-house dry-aged steaks. It also includes expanded seafood, chicken and salad options, as well as housemade pasta dishes.
Everything at Elisabetta’s will be made from scratch, including all pasta, breads, sauces, baked goods and gelatos. Elisabetta’s dry-ages its steaks in-house and cure its own salumis. The restaurant features three pizza ovens made in Naples, Italy, two located inside the restaurant and one outside.
The restaurant will offer 70 wines by the glass and a 400-bottle wine list featuring classic and lesser-known but great-value Italian wines and proseccos. The bar will serve classic Italian cocktails from Negroni’s to Aperol Spritzes. The beverage director is Ervin Machado, a level-2 sommelier with a deep knowledge of Italian cocktails and liquors. He also serves as beverage director for Louie Bossi’s.
Some key staff members of Elisabetta’s staff in Delray Beach will move over to the new West Palm Beach location when it opens next month.
Elisabetta’s menu items will include the Roman Lunch, a pizza-hearth-baked bread with burrata and prosciutto di Parma, the Cacio e Pepe and a white pizza topped with Pecorino Romano. Gelato toppings include honeycombe, salted Marcona almond and chocolate brittle. Elisabetta’s makes all breads and desserts in house, including several kinds of gelato.
Elisabetta’s interior features a salumi bar faced with cool Calacatta marble and two gold-tiled, beehive-shaped Neapolitan pizza ovens.
The dining room features a beamed wood ceiling above rustic basket-weave brick walls. The bar tops are pewter, where guests can sink into their drinks on red or gold leather custom bar stools. The restrooms are graced with spectacular entry doors with hand-molded glass panels and feature Italian mosaic terracotta floors. The women’s restroom is donned with ornate vintage mirrors and a hand-painted, textured wall covering.
The original tableware was commissioned for Elisabetta’s and designed by Sarah Campbell of Collier & Campbell. The restaurant’s interior was designed by Karen Hanlon along with Big Time partner/co-founder Todd Herbst.
