A new Italian restaurant in SLO? Here’s what’s opening in former Upper Crust location
A new Italian restaurant is coming to San Luis Obispo.
Tre Fiamme Pizzeria Trattoria opened Friday at 1560 Los Osos Valley Road, Suite 190, in the commercial space vacated by Upper Crust Trattoria. That popular Italian restaurant operated in the city for 31 years before its owners announced they were retiring and closing the business in February.
Tre Fiamme Pizzeria Trattoria launches in the Laguna Shopping Center with takeout and free delivery service only, in accordance with state public health guidelines. The restaurant eventually plans to seat around 200 with the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions.
Tre Fiamme is a partnership between three Italian natives: cousins Giuseppe and Donato Ricci and their friend Matthew Guglielmo.
All three are from the southern part of Italy and have years of experience working in the restaurant industry. The Riccis are originally from Catania in Sicily, and Guglielmo is from Calabria, the Italian region just north of Sicily.
“We plan to serve authentic Southern Italian foods made the way it’s made back home,” Giuseppe Ricci said. “Our eggplant lasagna is made in the style that you’d get in Italy.”
The menu, which features dishes for $15 to $30, includes nine pasta plates such as spaghetti carbonara featuring pork cheek; garganelli with clams, white wine sauce and saffron, and house-made ravioli with ricotta and spinach.
Pizza options include classics such as margherita and pepperoni as well as salsiccia e friarelli, which features fresh mozzarella, sausage and broccolini.
The name of the restaurant, which means “three flames” in Italian, was coined because of the building’s three fireplaces and three partners.
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The three partners share a deep background in food that goes back to their youths in Italy.
Donato Ricci, Tre Fiamme’s chef, grew up learning the trade from his father, who owned a restaurant and bar in Catania. Ricci spent many days and nights helping out at the family business after school, according to the restaurant’s website.
“By age 17, Ricci had taken over the family catering and staffing company that maintained a high renowned hospitality track record for venues in the city, while also supplying jobs in the area,” Tre Fiamme’s website states. “His passion for the field kept growing, which prompted his decision to turn it into a career, and sparked his enrollment into the hospitality management school.”
Ricci also has worked at high-profile restaurants in Los Angeles, according to the business’s website.
His cousin, Giuseppe Donati, had worked in the restaurant industry in Italy since the age of 15 when he moved to America at 25.
He worked as a server at a Japanese restaurant in Buellton before moving to Santa Barbara to work as general manager of Arnoldi’s Cafe and Joe’s Cafe, both popular spots.
Giuseppe was involved in opening and managing Los Angeles restaurants such as Provini, Bevacco, Binc, Ogliastro and Via Vai.
Guglielmo, who moved to Brooklyn in the 1960s from Italy, has had careers on Wall Street and in industrial real estate in addition to food and wine industry jobs.
“We’ve been looking for a business for about two years now,” Guglielmo said. “When this place presented itself, we all came to see it. We feel in love with the location. We enjoyed this place. We thought it had great potential.”
Donato Ricci said the partners didn’t want to drift too far away from Upper Crust Trattoria’s history of traditional Italian cuisine, while embracing a large space the business will be able to use in the future.
“When Upper Crust closed and we learned about this opportunity, we thought it was a great chance to come to an area we love,” Giuseppe Ricci said. “I would like to retire here. We look forward to when things are back to normal and we can have people inside.”
For more information, go to https://trefiammeslo.com/.
This story was originally published December 10, 2020 at 3:43 PM.
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