Piccolo Italian Restaurant Opens in Mayfield

Piccolo Italian Restaurant's grand opening is about two weeks away, but the owners already like what they have been hearing.

"Where have you been all my life — he was talking about the food, of course," managing partner Joanne Laurie-O'Brien jokingly recalled one patron saying. "It's easy to do my job because the product I'm bringing out from the back is marvelous."

Piccolo began its soft opening two weeks ago and is planning a grand opening following Mother's Day. The restaurant at 1261 SOM Center Road in Mayfield Town Center seats more than 80 people between dinner tables, high-tops and the bar. The menu includes about a dozen pasta dishes, as many pizzas and sandwiches, and appetizers that range from calamari to sausage-stuffed red peppers.

The restaurant also has a specialty menu with items like chicken Marsala, sea bass, scallops and Short Rib Agnolotti. This is owner and executive chef Christopher Light's second restaurant. He opened Vivo in Parma about two years ago. Piccolo is fairly similar to Vivo, he said, particularly the reasonably priced fining dining concept.

"I felt there was a need for a nice place to go and hang out," Light said. "There's not that many nice places (in Mayfield) where you could go and have a nice dinner or you could go to have a pizza and a glass of wine, too, without video games and pool tables.

"I went to a lot of the restaurants around here and said, 'I think I could compete with these guys.'"

Additionally, the restuarant will begin hosting a daily happy hour and occasional live music.

Many of the people on Piccolo's staff are Light's family members, including Laurie-O'Brien, who is Light's aunt. She said her nephew asked her to be his manager if he ever opened a restaurant in the eastern suburbs. She jumped at the chance once he settled on Mayfield, where Laurie-O'Brien has been a resident for 55 years.

"I love doing this, it's like a party every night," Laurie-O'Brien said. "I like gabbin' with people and making them feel like they're having dinner at my house."

Piccolo is open every day except Sundays, from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., though it will be open on Mother's Day. Call 440-646-1383 or check out the restaurant's Facebook page for more information.