When chef Chris Curtiss first joined the North Italia team, the now nationwide restaurant chain first established in 2002 had just four locations. On Wednesday, the popular Italian eatery opened its 50th site at the Brea Mall, the second Orange County store for the chain, which also operates in Irvine.
While credit for the company’s growth can’t go solely to Curtiss, its corporate chef and director of culinary research and development, his dedication to maintaining the brand’s quality is part of North Italia’s secret sauce.
Curtiss grew up in the Bay Area and began learning his craft in San Francisco when he was 21. The young cook worked his way up in kitchens such as those led by chef Michael Tusk at Quince and chef Ron Siegel at Madcap. In 2010, Curtiss followed family to Phoenix, Ariz., where restaurateur Sam Fox approached him with an opportunity.
Chef Chris Curtiss runs the pass at North Italia Brea during a soft opening.
(Eddie Sanchez)
Fox started the North Italia concept as part of the Fox Restaurant Concepts group, and enlisted Curtiss to help the brand find its focus.
“When I started, North was only four locations, and it was inspired by Italian cuisine but it didn’t really have a strong, regional Italian foundation,” Curtiss said. “It just didn’t have a very strong identity, in my opinion, at the time.”
Curtiss introduced tenets that define the North Italia brand today, like hand-tossed pizzas and homemade pasta made daily. The restaurant group also sources ingredients from Italy and fosters relationships with vendors such as San Nicola in Italy, which supplies their Prosciutto di Parma.
North Italia opens its 50th location in Brea.
(Eddie Sanchez)
In 2019, Cheesecake Factory Inc. closed the acquisitions of Fox Restaurant Concepts, including North Italia. Although the restaurant now operates under the Cheesecake Factory’s portfolio, its restaurants maintain the scratch-made menu. While such cooking practices turn out a higher quality product, it’s a style of cooking that can be challenging to replicate on a larger scale.
“This has given us an amazing opportunity to fine tune the kind of systems that have helped us maintain that level of attention to detail,” said Curtiss. “The system, the training that has been fleshed out over the past handful of years has helped us with our growth.”
The North Italia menu recently introduced a freshly baked focaccia bread to the menu. It’s an addition that Curtiss admits is ambitious, but involves a process that isn’t wholly dissimilar from their pizza dough, which under goes 48 hours of fermentation.
Freshly baked focaccia bread at North Italia Brea.
(Eddie Sanchez)
“It’s hot and fresh and comes to you right out of the oven,”Curtiss said.
The focaccia at North Italia Brea is a round loaf served with a small plate of whipped butter with a bit of honey and a drizzle of pesto that’s been made from Sicilian pistachios. Curtiss cuts into the bread with a knife and steam escapes from beneath the crackly crust, revealing the soft, chewy interior. The loaf is sprinkled with fennel pollen and wild oregano from Italy. It’s an appropriate companion to handmade pasta, eggplant Parmesan, heirloom tomato and burrata or basically anything with sauce or olive oil that needs sopping up.
There are other new additions to the menu that highlight the spring season, like a grilled steak panzanella salad that includes bits of charred ciabatta, mixed in with watermelon radish, heirloom tomato, green beans, cucumber and a cage-free hard boiled egg. A fig and prosciutto pizza pairs sweet jammy figs with the signature Prosciutto di Parma for a complex bite.
A fig and prosciutto pizza pairs sweet, jammy figs with Prosciutto di Parma.
(Sarah Mosqueda)
North Italia Brea is located in an area of the Brea Mall that recently underwent redevelopment. Other dining options planned for the renovated, mixed-use space include Pacific Catch, Din Tai Fung and Philz Coffee. There is also a pocket park that connects to a public plaza and nearby residences, which makes the space feel like a community. It’s a detail that Curtiss said is important to the North Italia brand.
“We still want to have a real level of authenticity and it to feel like a neighborhood restaurant, even through we are popping up in malls,” he said.
North Italia Brea is part of an area of the Brea Mall that recently underwent redevelopment into mixed use space.
(Eddie Sanchez)
“Starting with a shell of a building and watching every step from the sign, to the kitchen equipment getting delivered, then smelling the food being cooked for the first time with all the new staff … I love it,” said Curtiss. “It grounds me, it reinvigorates me and it’s just an amazing experience to go through the opening process. Even though we have done quite a few of them.”
North Italia Brea is located at 1500 Brea Mall, Ste. 1501, in Brea. For reservations call (714) 384-7458 or visit northitalia.com