Greeley’s Pellegrini Cucina Italiana inches toward re-opening with a new look, new dining concepts
Even though Carlo Pellegrini’s restaurant is currently limited to catering and take-out, he still makes fresh pasta in-house and scratch sauces. He plans to re-open the restaurant to in-house dining and will also offer a fast-casual concept soon. Photo courtesy of Pellegrini Cucina Italiana.
By Emily Kemme
About three years ago, during the early morning hours of March 30, 2019, Pellegrini Ristorante Italiano Bar was partially destroyed by an electrical fire.
Fire is high on the list of any business owners’ worst fears, as Carlo Pellegrini and his wife Jessica Morse know, and this fire burned through the building’s roof. Although it was limited to the front of the house and smoke damage throughout, the incident made on-site cooking impossible.
They initially thought it would be a relatively easy fix — restoring the interior and replacing the roof. Pellegrini hoped to have the premises repaired and operating within five months.
Three years and one pandemic later, Pellegrini is rueful.
“It was difficult after the fire to figure out insurance. Then came the pandemic and inflation. We tried to find the long way to come out of this nightmare. It was a nightmare, it still is,” he said.
The Greeley community rallied to help the popular Italian restaurant, including a former employee establishing a GoFundMe page which raised over $7,200 to support the Pellegrini family. They moved the business of cooking to the Greeley/Evans Moose Lodge, renting space in the Lodge’s kitchen.
Pellegrini ran his catering business from there until roof and kitchen repairs allowed him back on the premises in 2021. During that time, he also created a takeout business in 2020, which neatly pigeonholed his concept, fitting it into both pandemic-enforced restrictions and accepting the fact that he had no dining room open to patrons.
“Between catering and the curbside setup, I can support the family. But it’s not exactly what I’m looking for,” he admitted.
But silver linings exist, and reinventions do happen. Over the past three years, Pellegrini has had downtime to retool and diversify his entire operation.
Even though Carlo Pellegrini’s restaurant is currently limited to catering and take-out, he continues to make fresh pasta in-house and scratch sauces. Photo courtesy of Pellegrini Cucina Italiana.
Renamed Pellegrini Cucina Italiana, he plans to open the first arm this year: a fast-casual space in the front of the house that will at least be open for lunch. The concept won’t have service; customers can order their meal from a hostess station, then take their beverage and either sit down with their meal in a small seating area or take it to-go.
The second prong of the refurbished space will feature an intimate fine dining section limited to 50 people, Pellegrini said. For those familiar with the restaurant before the fire, the space is a long, narrow area carved out from the original main dining room.
The dining room will be reservation only, and he plans initially on hiring a few servers; he wants to both train them to his expectations and control the numbers at the start. Pragmatic, he said limiting employees for the time being helps reduce the labor cost. At the moment, there are only four employees back of house, plus Pellegrini.
The dining room menu will be more extensive than what is offered in the fast-casual space. He plans to feature more upscale, high-quality products, allowing him to branch out from the existing to-go menu.
“Now it is just pasta, salad, some appetizers — they’re very quick and easy to cook,” he said.
What had been the bar area is walled off for now, and Pellegrini plans to limit alcohol to wine and beer for the short term. Again, part of that is to keep staff numbers small, part is recognizing that rebuilding his brand is a work in progress.
“We have to adapt to our situation. Our staff changed. Pellegrini won’t be the same as before, but we’ll present the name in a different way.”
The kitchen, gleaming with its white tiles and polished stainless steel workspaces, is quiet on this Wednesday morning. This is where the pasta is still scratch made in-house, where sauces are created from Pellegrini family recipes that capture the essence of the Puglia region — the taste of briny Adiatric breezes, acreages of sun-kissed durum wheat and rolling hillsides of olive groves.
When you walk through the doors into the shell of the dining room, automatic nail guns echo, punctuating conversations between the construction workers that reverberate off new drywall. There are arched doorways where there were previously none, and the space is disorienting.
And yet, Pellegrini smiles, counting on his fingers how these enormous setbacks have resulted in growth.
“Before, we were a dining room with catering. Now, with the fast-casual, a dining room, take-out, delivery and catering, we have five prongs behind the name Pellegrini,” he said.
Enjoy the tastes of Italy at Pellegrini Cucina Italiana
Take Out - Curbside Operation Hours: Monday - Thursday 11:15 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. | 4:15 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. | Friday - Saturday 11:15 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. | 4:15 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Catering: Monday to Sunday 11 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Where: 2400 17th St., Greeley, CO 80634
Delivery: NOSH NOCO
Currently there is no onsite dining
Contact: 970.515.5332 | manager.pellegrinirestaurant@gmail.com