Impasto’s Owners Are Cooking up a New Trattoria With Pizza For Villeray

The owners of Little Italy Italian restaurant Impasto and pizzeria Gema are joining forces with some of their staff to open a new trattoria in Villeray this winter.

Impasto owners Michele Forgione and Stefano Faita, along with Gema chef Anthony Di Iorio and Impasto manager/sommelier Benjamin Lemay Lemieux will be a four-person ownership team, opening up at a to-be-disclosed location on Jarry, somewhere between St-Laurent and St-Denis.

Pizza will be a big focus at the to-be-named restaurant: Faita tells Eater that unlike Neapolitan-style Gema, the new restaurant will do Brooklyn-style pies — think of a slightly more voluminous dough, with a little more bulk in terms of toppings. Dough will all be cold fermented for two to three days, and naturally leavened.

And in one big change, the trattoria will also do delivery, something Gema has never offered. 12- and 16-inch pizzas will be available for delivery, with 12-inch options in-house — the menu is mostly still to be determined, but will include classics like pepperoni. Faita says it will include a build-your-own option with a choice between red or white base.

Beyond pizza, a small pasta selection will round out the menu.

“It’s going to be classic pastas: cacio e pepe, carbonara, Bolognese, we’re hopefully looking at like $15 to $17 a pasta dish. It’s gonna be affordable, a family place, a neighbourhood spot,” says Faita.

Expect booze, too: Lemay Lemieux says the wine list will highlight “small convenient, [and] well-structured natural wines”, and it should be a nice space: with room for around 50 people, design work is being done by Ménard Dworkind, the names behind designs both elaborate and minimalist like Miss Wong and Falafel Yoni.

It’s been almost three years since the Impasto mini-empire last expanded, with casse-croûte Chez Tousignant, the group’s only non-Italian so far.

Expect to wait a few more months for the trattoria project — at this stage, it’s expected for March.

• Step Inside Chez Tousignant, the New Little Italy Snack Bar From Impasto [EMTL]