An upscale-casual Italian restaurant from a Dallas heavy-hitter is coming this fall: Called Centralé Italia, it's a brand new concept from veteran restaurateur Patrick Colombo, owner and CEO of Dallas-based hospitality group Restaurant Works (Cru Wine Bar, Princi Italia), opening in Preston Hollow Village, the buzzy center at Walnut Hill Lane and US-75.

The restaurant will reside at 7859 Walnut Hill Ln. #150, taking two adjacent storefronts that were previously occupied by Thai restaurant Pakpao and Frost Gelato, in a prime location across from Trader Joe's.

Centralé Italia will serve wood-fired dishes, Neapolitan style pizza, pastas, and gelato made in-house. It’ll be a menu that’s both approachable and value-driven.

While its sibling Princi Italia specializes in scratch-made Italian fare including house-made pastas and seasonal vegetables, Centralé will be more pizza- and pasta-centered. Colombo says it seemed like the right concept for Preston Hollow, which he liked for its central location and family-oriented area.

Pizza talk
As co-founder of Sfuzzi, the pioneering Italian concept that was one of the first in Dallas to serve pizza topped with arugula in the late '80s, Colombo has witnessed Dallas' evolution as a pizza town.

The signature dish at Centralé will be what he calls a Neo-Neapolitan pizza, which is "New York artisan pizza meets Neapolitan," with a slice profile that swells up to an inch-and-a-half on the "rim" of the pizza while sitting flatter in the middle.

The goal: to please those squeamish Dallas diners who hate floppy pizza.

"Ordinarily, with this kind of pizza, if you try to hold the piece up, the front is going to flop down and the cheese can slip off," Colombo says. “We’re going to try to achieve that Neapolitan crust but with a stiff base."

It'll be a fermented dough, using a "biga" — the Italian version of a starter, which helps the dough rise and makes the flavor more complex, almost like a sourdough. They'll also use an innovative pizza oven made by Marra Forni, which combines a variety of heating methods including gas, wood, and coal.

"We're going to be one of the first in the city to use a wood-fired pizza oven and gas and our deck will rotate," Colombo says.

Preston Hollow Village has another popular pizza purveyor in Modern Market, the Colorado-based chain — but their profile is more of a quick-service restaurant with smaller pizzas that feed one or two people. Colombo says that Centralé Italia will be a slightly more formal dining experience, with pizzas that are big enough for four or more to share.

Interior design
For Centrale, he's combined and renovated what was previously two separate suites, creating a space with warm tones of brown, gold, and emerald green. Customers will be able to watch the pizza kitchen while they eat.

There'll be a big rectangular bar where people can sit on all four sides. Given the company's expertise with Cru, its wine bar chain, there'll be a serious wine program that includes labels from Italy. No Sfuzzi-style frozen bellinis but they will have non-frozen versions.

"I think we’re getting back to a little higher standards in the overall restaurant industry, from casual fast food to fine dining steakhouse dinners,” Colombo says. “I’m a consumer like everybody, and you want to go to a place where the hospitality is good and the value is good."
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Teresa Gubbins contributed to this story.