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Italian-owned restaurant and market welovEmilia is opening downtown later this year — bringing fresh tagliatelle, tigella, and piadina to a large space on 4th Avenue. Signs listing the restaurant’s website plaster the side of the building at 159 4th Avenue North.
The restaurant’s general manager Pietro Pini responded to initial inquiries, sharing that welovEmilia is owned by three Italian women: Donatella Schianchi, Jenny Tassinari, and Patrizia Nanetti. All three are natives of the small Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy.
One of the owners said their region’s food is “too good to not share with the rest of the world” — and they’ve employed two Italian chefs to do so. Pini said that welovEmilia’s goal is to bring high quality, real Italian food to Nashville natives, tourists, and the downtown work force when they open later this year.
A slideshow menu posted on the restaurant’s website shows fresh pasta, piadina (flatbread sandwiches) and tigella — a small, round, flatbread, typical of the Apennine Mountains of Emilia, between the provinces of Bologna and Modena. It’s usually eaten with cured meats or with cheese stuffed inside.
The restaurant will seat around 100, between the tables, countertops, and bar with kitchen views.
A small market inside will sell Italian products like olive oil, balsamic vinegar, jam, taralli, and more. There’s no space for a patio here, but they’re working with the city on getting permits for a large rolling door on one of the 4th Avenue-facing windows.
Currently, welovEmilia plans to open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
welovEmilia [Official Site]