There’s a new Italian restaurant coming to the Valley. Mora Italian is the result of a partnership between Stefano Fabbri, CEO and owner of Pomo Pizzeria Napoletana, and celebrity chef Scott Conant. Conant appears as a judge on the Food Network’s competitive cooking show “Chopped” and owns Italian restaurants Scarpetta and L’Impero.
Mora Italian is set to open in December in uptown Phoenix at the southeast corner of Seventh Street and Montebello Avenue. The chefs plan to style the restaurant as a modern osteria, a rustic Italian venue for simple food and wine.
“If you’ve ever been to Italy and you go to an osteria, it’s a place where people feel like it’s an extension of their living room,” Conant told AZ Central. “You go there, you hang out, you have friends and you just partake in the conviviality of the environment.
Fabbri’s Pomo Pizzeria Napoletana, with locations in Phoenix, Scottsdale, Gilbert, and Glendale, won the Phoenix Business Journal’s first Pizza Madness competition in 2016, edging out NYPD Pizza in the final day of voting.
Conant’s Scarpetta, with locations in New York, Montauk, Las Vegas, Miami, and coming soon to Philadelphia, was finalist for the James Beard Foundation’s best new restaurant in 2009, was named one of Esquire’s best new restaurants in America, and garnered three stars from food critic Frank Bruni of The New York Times. Conant is no longer involved with the New York location, but operates those in Las Vegas and Miami, while also running Vegas-based wine bar D.O.C.G. Enoteca and New York’s Impero Caffe.
While Conant maintains his restaurants across the nation and will continue to serve as a judge on “Chopped,” he’s purchased a house in Scottsdale and moved his family to Arizona.
Mora Italian will occupy the 6,000-square-foot space that was formerly home to the headquarters of Planned Parenthood. Award-winning Phoenix-based contractor LGE Design Build will transform the space into Mora Italian’s 180-seat restaurant.
The restaurant joins other new uptown eateries, such as Stock & Stable, The Herb Box, Phoenix Ale Brewery Central Kitchen, Pita Jungle, Pomelo, Lou Malnati’s and Joe’s Midnight Run, located nearby.
