Former P Franco chef Mitchell Damota to head up new Italian restaurant Dalla
Called Dalla, the kitchen will be headed up by Mitchell Damota, former head head chef at P Franco and Burro e Salvia, alongside Gianmarco Leone, previously at Claridges.
The restaurant is located on the former Peg site, which was part of the P Franco and Bright stable of restaurants. It is a partnership between Damota and Gennaro Leone, owner of furniture showroom Spazio Leone.
“For as long as I’ve been in London, I’ve wanted to create a space where I could invite all my friends, sit around a table and bring together the things I love the most,” says Leone.
“Dalla is this pipe dream coming to life, but only made possible with the help of Mitchell Damota and Naples native Gianmarco Leone. Mitchell is a forensically passionate maestro of Italian cooking with an archivist’s obsession for reviving old & forgotten recipes.
“My big fratello Gianmarco is a machine who has worked tirelessly through London kitchens for the last half decade, leaving Claridges to start this adventure with me. All of us connect on the understanding that Italian food belong in a family-style setting: simple, intimate, but always an experience.”
Moving with the seasons
A key feature of Dalla’s menu will be seasonality, not simply in the choice of ingredients but to reflect regional dishes of Italy that best signify the seasons. In winter, dishes will be richer and warmer, featuring Northern influences, while the summer menu will have more southern Italian dishes with fresh vegetables and fish.
The menu will have a regularly rotating series of dishes comprising antipasti, and pasta and risotto alongside two to three larger dishes of meat or fish as well as seasonal side dishes.
A vitrine outside the kitchen will display desserts and cakes, with a tiramisu and cheese to be a permanent fixture of the menu.
The restaurant’s interior will feature classics of Italian design with more personal finds that Leone has sourced in collaboration with Sicilian designer Oscar Piccolo to create a feel that is intended to be ‘intimate, personal and surprising, yet familiar’, according Leone.
A Stilnovo chandelier will hang in the main room that will also house custom-made pedestal round-base tables and Robert Mallet Stevens chairs in white leather padding. The hand-hammered restaurant sign, menu holders and wall lights are bespoke pieces that have been made in Naples and other design elements will include Caccia Dominioni brass door handles and a 1950s brass mirror in the bathroom attributed to Gio Ponti.
