Servino’s reopens at original Ark Row site

Owner Angelo Servino (standing right) and his son, Managing Partner Natale Servino, greet diners at their tables at Servino Ristorante, which celebrated its opening night Sept. 30 at its new location on Ark Row, at 114 Main St. Next door, at 116 Main, is their new bar and garden patio, Enoteca. The restaurant originally opened at the same address in 1977 before moving to lower Main Street in 1999. (Amelia Plumb / For The Ark)

Editor’s note — This article won fourth place for best business reporting in the California News Publishers Association’s 2023 California Journalism Awards.

Don’t call it a comeback, call it a homecoming: After a two-year closure, local favorite Servino Ristorante has reopened in its original location on Ark Row.

The restaurant, which served its last meal at its former 9 Main St. site on May 12, 2021, officially served its first meal at its revived location on Sept. 30.

Servino’s Ark Row presence is two-fold: There’s the main restaurant, called Trattoria at 114 Main St., and the Enoteca garden patio at 116 Main St. Both are open Tuesdays-Sundays, the former 5-9 p.m. and the latter 4-10 p.m.

Enoteca focuses more on wine, drinks and small bites; “enoteca” in Italian directly translates to wine repository, but they’re often special shops that bring regional wines to visitors and tourists.

The two entities seat a combined 90 diners — 46 inside Trattoria and 34 with Enoteca’s combined indoor and outdoor seating.

Servino’s first opened at 114 Main St. in 1977. It moved to 9 Main St. in 1999. Prior to Servino’s return, Don Antonio Trattoria operated out of 114 Main St.; it closed in 2020 due to the pandemic. The 9 Main St. location has been taken over by Malibu Farm, which opened May 1.

The restaurant was first opened by Angelo and Kathryn Servino and is now run by them and their two sons, Natale and Vittorio. The family also runs Caffe Acri at 1 Main St., which offered Servino’s pop-up dinner service since 2021.

Natale Servino said most of the past two years has been spent on renovating the new space. Among the standout features, he said, are a custom acoustic ceiling that will help soften noise in the small area and a custom banquette created for comfort and for noise dampening. He also noted the restaurant was designed to ensure both large and small groups can enjoy the space.

“We wanted the dining space in the Trattoria to be comfortable for people to come multiple times a week, but also feel special for guests to come for that unique occasion,” Servino said.

Tiburon resident Ed Lynch, a longtime friend of the Servino family, attended a training dinner Sept. 28 with wife Shana Rhode-Lynch. He said they wanted to support the restaurant’s reopening and the Servino family.

“That place has got such a great vibe,” Lynch said. “They’ve done a stunningly amazing job to get that place back together.”

Servino’s menu is rooted in the southern Italian culinary tradition with a focus on clean, Mediterranean flavors, fish and olive oils, Servino said. Angelo Servino is a native of the Calabria region in Italy, sometimes referred to as the toe of the boot-shaped Italian peninsula.

Natale Servino said the menu blends those traditional elements with some Northern California inspiration by focusing on local, organic products.

There are stuffed pastas, ravioli, seafood dishes and more on the menu. Servino also confirmed the restaurant’s roasted half-chicken will continue to be a menu mainstay.

The wine menu features many traditional Italian offerings. Servino’s has an extensive wine collection from decades of collaboration with vendors and Italian purveyors, predominantly varietals from Old World vines produced in limited quantities, such as barolo, brunello and sangiovese.

Leading the Servino kitchen — and keeping it all in the family — is Executive Chef Massimo Covello, Angelo Servino’s nephew. Originally a baker and pastry chef in the Italian Alps, Covello moved to California around 2000 to expand his culinary skills.

Servino said Covello was drawn to California’s seasonal cooking, in particular the high-quality produce that can’t be found anywhere else.

“We’re all really excited at the prospect of being able to focus solely on dinner service right now and have a prep kitchen dedicated to doing slow braises and sugos and homemade pastas and focaccias,” Servino said. “And really, all of that prep is as if we were welcoming guests over to our house for a celebratory dinner. I think we’re all excited about that — especially Chef Covello.”

While the Sept. 28 pre-opening offerings were mostly appetizer bites, Lynch said they were all good and praised the fish appetizer he had, a poached Pacific halibut that will be a main dish.

“What we tasted last night was out of this world,” he said.

Servino said Mondays may be a possible date for community-based events at the restaurant, but noted Caffe Acri will still be used for live music, including opera night, as the cafe’s dining room is conducive for music.

The return to the restaurant’s original location is a special moment for the family, Servino said.

“I feel we’re just caretakers of these special, unique spaces,” he said. “And I’m excited that our family has been able to curate and share with the community what we love to do most in the world and really be able to continue to expand our connections to all the people that love to grow and produce food and wine and enjoy everything that goes on to our dinner tables.

“The venue couldn’t be more perfect; the community couldn’t be more supportive and we couldn’t be more excited.”