Amore by Andrea opens Thursday

Amore by Andrea will open to the public at 5 p.m. Nov. 13, in the building formerly occupied by Mattison’s Steakhouse at the Plaza. 

Sarasota real estate investor W. Howard Rooks, who owns the building at 555 Bay Isles Parkway, and Andrea Bozzolo, owner of Andrea’s The Art of Food & Wine on Siesta Drive in Sarasota, are the partners behind the venture.

Amore by Andrea will serve contemporary Italian cuisine using a combination of local, organic produce and meat and ingredients imported from Italy.

“We use local fisheries and all organic vegetables,” Bozzolo said. “We make our own pasta and breads, using flour imported from Italy.”

The 6,200-square-foot building had been vacant since 2008, when Mattison’s closed.

Over the past two years, Rooks has made significant renovations to the building that’s modeled after the Plaza Hotel in New York, although he declined to say how much he invested in the building.

He tripled the size of its bar, installed a new electrical system plus new carpeting and landscaping and added new artwork to the restaurant’s collection. He also received a special exception for outdoor dining from the town, allowing him to add 50 seats in a 1,600-square-foot outdoor patio to the restaurant’s existing 210 indoor seats.

Amore by Andrea will initially serve dinner from 4:30 to 10 p.m. but could expand to offer lunch and Sunday brunch.

For more information, pick up a Nov. 13 copy of the Longboat Observer.

Contact Robin Hartill at [email protected].