Former Bern's Chefs Open Italian Restaurant In Channel District, Tampa

A new Italian restaurant will soon make its way to Grand Central at Kennedy in the Channel District.

Located at 1120 E. Kennedy Blvd. across from Pour House, the 1,900-square-foot Cena Restaurant will provide Channel District residents and visitors a modern, fresh and simple Italian dining experience. Italian for the word "dinner,'' Cena plans to provide dining from the roots with real ingredients, traditional dishes and attentive service.

Former Sidebern's chef de cuisine Michael Buttacavoli will act as executive chef at the new restaurant, whipping up dishes like spaghetti and veal, pork or beef meatballs; duck confit; shrimp scampi; pan seared steak; braised oxtail gnocchi; and lobster risotto, to name a few.

"The food is to die for,'' says Grand Central at Kennedy developer Ken Stoltenberg of Susan Bianchi and Romeo Patron's new concept.

Stoltenberg approached dining aficionados Bianchi and Patron of South Tampa's Bianchi's Enoteca-- who met while working at Bern's Fine Wine & Spirits-- in hopes of developing an interesting dining concept for Grand Central at Kennedy.

"The area is growing tremendously and we are excited to be a part of the development of the entire downtown Tampa area,'' says Bianchi. "I think there's a huge market with a really great cross section of people living in downtown and the Channel District.''

Plans call for a soft opening of the 40-seat restaurant on Friday, March 15th, with hours running Wednesday through Sunday.

Writer: Alexis Quinn Chamberlain
Source: Ken Stoltenberg, Grand Central at Kennedy; Susan Bianchi, Cena Restaurant
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