Few cuisines are imitated as often as Italy’s. But, as any expert chef will confirm, there’s no substitute for the real deal.
Chef Franco Dragonetti, a native Italian, has brought the real deal to Plant City in the form of Bella Mare Ristorante, located downtown at 115 E. Reynolds St. The restaurant, which opened Tuesday, Nov. 22, is his second in the Tampa Bay area and another labor of love for the lifelong chef. He is partly responsible for creating Brandon’s Allegria Italiana with his brother, Vito, in 2013.
“We have to bring a little bit of Italy to another place,” Franco Dragonetti said.
Born in Matera, Italy, Franco Dragonetti and his brother, Vito Dragonetti, learned to cook from his mother, Mamma Rosa. The Dragonettis lived in Italy until 1972, when they relocated to New York City.
They owned, operated and cooked in several New York City-area restaurants for over three decades, including Caffe Nuvolari, Cafe Ernesto, Pastappunto Pasta House and Sotto Cinque. In 2004, the Dragonettis sold their New York properties and took a break.
Even after taking time off, they eventually felt the pull to go back.
“When you get involved in this business, you never get out,” Franco Dragonetti said. “But it’s nice. We like it. I enjoy cooking.”
A year after successfully launching Allegria Italiana in Brandon, Franco Dragonetti left the restaurant solely to his brother. He started Bella Mare and brought aboard a friend, Anthony Mondelli, to manage the dining room experience.
Although the restaurant’s storefront hasn’t undergone much of an overhaul, adding a small banner above the entryway and placing a chalk board on the sidewalk, the inside isn’t recognizable as the place that was most recently City Pizza.
The interior has been redone to offer a more intimate dining experience, to say the least: the walls have gotten fresh coats of paint, the furniture has been replaced and the tables are all adorned with cloths and candles. Overlooking the dining room floor is a mural of a woman underwater, to which the owner partly attributes the restaurant’s name: Bella Mare, translated to “beautiful sea.”
“That’s her, right there,” Franco Dragonetti said. “Beautiful lady of the sea.”
Bella Mare’s menu reads largely in Italian, but Mondelli and the wait staff can answer any questions patrons may have. Popular Italian items, such as spaghetti and meatballs, chicken parmesan and shrimp scampi are present, but there are also plenty of items that many may not see as often. Such menu items include gnocchi ai formaggi, or tender potato pasta dumplings, paccheri ai pesto, or large tube pasta served with pesto sauce, and rigatoni bolognese, which is served in the restaurant’s homemade tomato sauce.
Although it isn’t on the menu, Mondelli has put together what he’s called a “house sampler appetizer,” a plate of calamari, mozzarella bites, bruschetta and other foods to hold patrons over until their main dishes arrive.
For dessert, Bella Mare offers cannoli with chocolate and hints of cinnamon. Other items include tiramisu and New York-style strawberry swirl cheesecake.
Franco Dragonetti’s goal is to stick around for the long haul. While the chef knows he won’t be there forever, he’d love to have his latest “touch of Italy” felt in the Winter Strawberry Capital of the World for a while.
“Hopefully, we’re going to go on for a long time,” he said.
Contact Justin Kline at jkline@plantcityobserver.com.