close their Italian restaurant Caffe Vialetto<\/a> after 26 years.<\/p>\nIt was a bittersweet turn of events. They had sold the property at 4019 S. Le Jeune Road in Coral Gables and served the final dinner on Aug. 16. The news broke the hearts of passionate regulars, who had flocked to the restaurant for family milestones, business dinners, romantic evenings and girls\u2019 nights out since 1999.<\/p>\n
Now, Chopa has reason to be happy again \u2014 and so do Caffe Vialetto\u2019s fans. Chopa is resurrecting Caffe Vialetto with a new name \u2014 Casa Vialetto \u2014 and a similar menu, in a new location at 267 Alhambra Circle in the Gables.<\/p>\n
The name change is to signal one big difference between the two restaurants, Chopa said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere used to be two of us, but now he [Fernandez] is retired, so I decided to move forward with a little difference,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
The new restaurant, he said, will be \u201ca little more modern,\u201d and smaller as well, 45 seats to Caffe Vialetto\u2019s 80. The menu will be primarily Italian but \u201cmore European,\u201d with the same emphasis on fresh seafood.<\/p>\n
Expect a full-service bar, too, and a slew of local products on the menu.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe always work with local products that can put a twist of the Caribbean on the plate,\u201d Chopa said. \u201cWe\u2019re in the Caribbean, after all. So sometimes we put fresh fish with fruit or something tropical.\u201d<\/p>\n
This means you can expect to see the classic Caffe Vialetto hog snapper, pan sauteed in a mango mojito sauce, on the menu when the hog fish is available.<\/p>\n
Chopa, who worked in such restaurants as Cafe Abbracci and Grazianos before opening Caffe Vialetto, admits opening this restaurant on his own instead of with a partner has been difficult. He had hoped to find a space sooner but was foiled \u2014 as so many restaurateurs are in Miami \u2014 by grease trap problems.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard,\u201d he admits. \u201cWe used to split the work half and half. Now it\u2019s 100 percent me. My future wife is helping me a lot with the paper work, thank God. I pray every day it doesn\u2019t get more complicated.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chopa has no firm opening date yet, but hopes Casa Vialetto will be ready for diners by the end of the month.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very happy and so ready after such a long wait,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Connie Ogle loves wine, books and the Miami Heat. Please don\u2019t make her eat a mango.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Caffe Vialetto closed last summer \u2014 but a new version is opening in Coral Gables. Caffe Vialetto Facebook…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255191,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226],"class_list":["post-255190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hialeah","tag-hialeah","tag-hialeah-headlines","tag-hialeah-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}