social media announcement<\/a>. \u201cThis isn\u2019t goodbye \u2014 it\u2019s see you soon. Thank you for every plate shared, every visit, and every bit of love you gave us.\u201d<\/p>\nAfter 28 years of cooking professionally and 13 years rising through the ranks of the classic downtown restaurant, chef and owner Raul Mendoza decided it was time to set off on his own in August 2025. For the former executive chef of Paesanos Riverwalk, Italian-American fare was a natural choice in an area otherwise dominated by Tex-Mex cuisine.<\/p>\n
The takeout menu didn\u2019t stray too far from the classics, offering choices like chicken piccata, spaghetti pomodoro, caprese salad, tiramisu, and lasagna Bolognese. Still, Mendoza said he wasn’t trying to reinvent the wheel with his offerings.<\/p>\n
“I figured with the demographic around the area, [comfort food] is what they’re looking for,” he explained at the time. “I wanted to show that you don’t have to go downtown for $40 a plate, or to Olive Garden.”<\/p>\n
Mendoza may have been going for comfort, but the kitchen team didn\u2019t cut corners, making all of the food from scratch, including the sauces, pizza dough, and even the breading on the chicken parmesan. Even the most familiar dishes had a subtle gourmet touch \u2014 like the confit garlic used in the Hawaiian pizza or the creamy burrata pouch on other pies.<\/p>\n
In a direct message, Mendoza declined to offer further comment as to the reasons behind the reset. It\u2019s unclear if Alla Nonna\u2019s will remain on the West Side when it resurfaces. He did promise that the concept would be back within a year. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Less than a year after opening, a pioneering Italian caf\u00e9 is pressing pause. Alla Nonna\u2019s at 901 NW…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280252,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2808,745,5468,82,84,83,2098],"class_list":["post-280251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-chefs","tag-closings","tag-italian-food","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-west-side"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}