Wilmington restaurant owners want diners to feel like they're at an Italian grandmom's home

A new downtown Wilmington Italian American restaurant that is taking over the site of the former Stitch House Brewery has a name that owners hope evokes warm, cozy feelings.

The owners of Bardea Food & Drink who acquired the location at 829 N. Market St. across from The Grand plan to call the restaurant "Casa Nonna" or Grandmother's House.

The name is an ode to Italian Nonnas of chef/co-owner Antimo DiMeo's grandmothers and their recipes. The Bardea team said it also represents "all the Nonnas of our region and their contributions to what we know as Italian-American cooking."

The menu has not yet been released and the opening date has not been set.

Stitch House Brewery permanently closed in late August after it was sold to popular city restaurateurs Scott Stein, Antimo DiMeo, and his father Pino DiMeo. The trio owns a trio of Bardea restaurants on Market Street that includes the flagship Bardea Food & Drink as well as Bardea Steak and The Garden.

The partners also own Pizzeria Bardea and Taqueria El Chingon food stalls in nearby DE.CO food hall and are preparing to open a full-service Italian restaurant this fall at DE.CO as well.

The Bardea team has been on a roll lately. Last month, they were hired by President Joe Biden t o cater an Italian dinner at Archmere Academy in Claymont for the Quad Summit, a gathering of an Indo-Pacific partnership that included Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

President Biden and first lady Jill Biden dined at Bardea Food & Drink when Biden was vice president and Stein says they have since ordered food from the modern Italian restaurant.

The expansive 7,000-square-foot Stitch House was opened by restaurateurs Daniel Sheridan and Robert Snowberger in March 2018. It had an on-site brewing operation headed by Andrew Rutherford, who previously made beer for Yards Brewing Co. and remained with Stitch throughout its entire run.

Sheridan and Snowberger now own The Post restaurant in Wilmington's Forty Acres near Trolley Square , which opened in July.

News Journal reporter Ryan Cormier contributed to this article. Patricia Talorico writes about food and restaurants. You can find her on Instagram , X and Facebook . Email ptalorico@delawareonline.com . Sign up for her Delaware Eats newsletter.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Wilmington restaurant owners want diners to feel like they're at an Italian grandmom's home