Princi Italia

Patrick Colombo is opening an Italian place tomorrow in Preston Royal Village: Princi Italia. It is a typographically challenging concept, as there's a typographical element between Princi and Italia that's like a completely vertical slash. I can't find it on my keyboard.

Colombo has engaged Kevin Ascolese as executive chef, and design firm JonesBaker went for a limestone Tuscan farmhouse look, according to the press release. There's also a garden with two "historic" live oaks (really? In Preston Royal Village shopping center? How cool!) David Brawley, who was pastry chef at N9NE steakhouse and who worked with Ascolese at Sfuzzi and Ferre, is pastry chef. Ascolese, who most recently headed the kitchen at Cru A Wine Bar in Denver, has a resume that also includes executive chef positions at Salve and Mi Piaci.

Princi Italia has a wood-burning pizza oven, natch; the menu is "modern Italian." That would be things like rock shrimp scampi; burrata with rapini, arugula, lemon and olive oil; bruschette with fava beans or fig and Gorgonzola; rigatoni with chicken meatballs; veal saltimbocca and pan-seared scallops with lemon-spinach risotto and saffron-parsley sauce.
-Leslie Brenner/Eats blog (09/08/2011)