After 27 years in business, Matzaluna is saying arrivederci to Sanibel.
The Italian restaurant and bar at 1200 Periwinkle Way will close Nov. 14 to make way for a new Italian restaurant and bar, Tutti Pazzi.
“The last day is on a Sunday. We’ll probably have a little party, a little something there to say goodbye,” said Matt Asen, a partner in the Prawnbroker Restaurant Group which opened Matzaluna in 1994. “I’m going to be 69, and I’m the youngest of the four partners. None of us are getting any younger.”
Asen said he and his colleagues have been looking for ways to slow down. While they’ve sold the Matzaluna restaurant, they still own the building. The group also owns Timbers and Sanibel Grill on Sanibel, University Grill and The Prawnbroker in south Fort Myers, and four restaurants on the East Coast.
The decision to close Matzaluna, according to Asen, was driven by the experience and enthusiasm the new owners are putting into Tutti Pazzi. The new concept, scheduled to open in January, is led by Leanna and Pasquale Russo in partnership with Debra and Jeramie Campana. The Campanas own Paper Fig Kitchen and recently opened The Fig East; they’re also partners in 400 Rabbits — all on Sanibel.
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For Tutti Pazzi, the Campanas and Russos are looking to create a new spot that Debra said will remain family friendly and thoroughly Italian but with their modern twists.
“The name in Italian means, ‘We’re all crazy,’ which, you know, sums us up a little,” Debra said, laughing. “This new partnership, it’s a beautiful marriage. They’re from New Jersey, I’m from New Jersey. They now live on the island, so do we. They’re Italian, Jeramie’s Italian. It’s been a great fit.”
Debra said the changes to the Tutti Pazzi space will be mainly decorative. They will keep the layout of the 9,400-square-foot building, as well as the beloved bar area. While the menu is still in development, Debra said pizzas from the kitchen’s longtime wood-fired ovens will be a major focus.
“It’s going to be amazing pizza, everything from New York style to Chicago style,” she said. “We’re bringing in the correct waters and recipes, all of it.”
How the Campanas find time for “all of it” is another story. Tutti Pazzi is just one of many culinary projects the couple have going.
They opened The Fig East in the former East End Deli space at 359 Periwinkle Way on Oct. 29. This gourmet-convenience-store concept offers many of the same dishes Chef Jeramie Campana makes at Paper Fig Kitchen, but in a market-style takeout format that’s more beach friendly.
Up next, the couple have teamed up with their 400 Rabbits partners, Don and Cleta Yamauchi, for Bamboo, a pan-Asian restaurant slated to open in early December in the former Il Tesoro space at 751 Tarpon Bay Road.
Debra, who’s been visiting Sanibel since she was a child, said this is the first solely Asian restaurant to operate on the island in more than two decades, recalling the long-defunct Chop Suey Louie’s of the 1980s — which was also owned by Asen.
“We only have 22 seats inside, so it’s a beautiful little dining room, and we’re expecting to do a lot of takeout,” Debra said of Bamboo, noting the menu will feature “some Chinese, some Korean, some Thai.”
While Chef Don Yamauchi, once named among the top five rising chefs in America by the James Beard Foundation, is of Japanese descent, Bamboo won’t be doing sushi. Not yet.
“Sushi, that’s the No. 1 question we get,” Debra said. “That’s an art all its own, and it’s not something we’re ready for yet.”
She said they’d like to see how the restaurant flows first and see what the space demands before committing to such an undertaking. She and her husband, after all, have made plenty of commitments.
“They remind me of me 30 years ago,” Asen said. “They’re young, energetic, and that’s what you need in this business.”
When asked if he’ll miss Matzaluna, Asen was his usual honest self.
“That place lasted 27 years, that’s what, 189 in dog years, and a million in restaurant years. It had a great run,” he said. “It’s like owning a boat: The happiest day is the day you buy it, and the next happiest day is the day you sell it.”
Annabelle Tometich is a staff writer and food editor for The News-Press and Naples Daily News. Email [email protected]; connect on Instagram (@abellewrites) and Twitter (@atometich).