mobanmarketPLAINFIELD, IL — Two years after Giambotta Pizza locked its doors for the last time on Lockport Street, owner Dario Rovito is gearing up to open a new iteration down the street.
Eponymously named Dario Mercato, the new market and pizzeria will open in the space formerly occupied by Big Sammy’s Italian Eatery, at 24036 W. Lockport St. Rovito expects the business to open toward the end of September, he told Patch.
Until then, the downtown Plainfield eatery is hidden under brown paper, its window sills painted green. A sign in Italian lets passersby know the forthcoming business will offer pizza, fried dishes, wine, gelato and grocery items.
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“To see all the change that’s happened in downtown Plainfield and all the growth and all the new spots, it’s kind of been crazy,” said Rovito, who also operates Capri Sogno down the street. “Even just being the ones going through the changes — you know, opening and closing a restaurant then opening up a new restaurant down here — has been cool to see.”
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In a way, Rovito is reconnecting with his childhood through his new venture.
When he was a child, his father owned an Italian restaurant and marketplace in Naperville called Pasta Amore. “It was this beautiful restaurant,” Rovito said.
The space featured a deli at the front of the building, a bar in the back, and a counter where customers could order food even further back. At night, it converted into a full-service bistro.
“The deli portion of the restaurant was called Dario Mercato,” he said. “So when I was a baby, he named it after me … and he had a painting there of a baby picture of me dressed as a chef. The painter wrote on the picture, ‘Dario Mercato.’ My dad didn’t ask him to do that, he kind of just did it on a whim.”
“[My dad and I] were talking about names,” Rovito continued. “My dad was like, ‘You should just revive Dario Mercato; this is Dario Mercato.”
The revived Dario Mercato will have elements of Giambotta — pizza and Italian cooking — and others similar to his father’s restaurant, including a marketplace. When customers walk into the new space, they can place their orders at the counter, choosing from items including Roman-style pan pizza, rotated daily and made with fresh, local ingredients, and focaccia sandwiches, which will be made daily in a finite amount, the owner said.
From there, customers can seat themselves at nearby tables or take their food to go.
Rovito’s father’s restaurant isn’t the only inspiration. Places he visited during his time in Italy last October for his wedding — ones that “were really casual, but not casual meaning that you had to sacrifice a good meal”— turned on a lightbulb in his head.
“Just because you walked in and you weren’t being served by somebody wearing a shirt and a tie didn’t mean you weren’t getting this incredible meal with these incredible ingredients being made with this care,” Rovito explained. “I wanted to bring that sort of idea to the new place.”
In doing so, he also hopes to “keep the soul of Giambotta.”
“It was very important to me at Giambotta to bring great ingredients and a great product and be as true to the style of pizza that I was trying to do there as I possibly could, and I want to carry that over here to Dario Mercato, even though we’re doing slightly different things,” Rovito said.
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