SLO County Italian restaurant reopens with longtime chef as new owner. See inside
After a 10-month closure, the Italian restaurant Café della Via has reopened in Cayucos with a new owner.
And good news for fans: The trattoria’s ambiance, staff and Italian-food menu are essentially the same as they were before the previous owners closed in mid-August 2024.
That’s because new owner David Flora had been cooking those specialties at the cafe for a dozen years, he told The Tribune.
“We can just say I missed it,” the 36-year-old San Luis Obispo native said when asked why he decided to reopen the 2-decade-old restaurant.
“And I wasn’t the only one. … Most of staff was, by the grace of God, somehow available and willing to come back nine months later,” including front-of-the-house manager Emma Quimby, he said.
“I’ve got great help and more support than I probably deserve.”
He includes among those supporters the cafe’s previous owners Denise and Perry Hallmeyer, who he called “my work parents, two people very near and dear to me. Three if you count their son, the little brother I never wanted (shout out, Reno!).”
The Hallmeyers recently sold their Cayucos Coffee shop next door, which is itself now closed for some sprucing up.
As is the case with many kitchen-crew newcomers, Flora started out at the Café della Via washing dishes. He was 23.
“Washing pans is still my true passion, Flora quipped.
Eventually, he wound up chopping, dicing, julienning and eventually cooking.
“I can’t sing or dance,” the Morro Bay High School alum said with a grin. “This is how you end up cooking for a living.”
What’s new at Cafe della Via?
During Café della Via’s closure, longtime enthusiasts were upfront with Flora about missing the trattoria and wine bar — and about their hopes for their favorite meals.
“I had to reassure people every day before we opened that ‘Yes, we’ll still have this and that,’ he said with a chuckle.
Changes to the cuisine were minor.
“We added an appetizer, ditched an entrée (shrimp orecchiette) and modified a few others,” he said. The new appetizer is beef/veal/pork meatballs on whipped ricotta with marinara sauce.
While what’s on the menu didn’t change much, the presentation of it did.
“We tried to make it more straightforward and concise,” Flora said.
Flora’s new menu includes antipasti, five salads (including roasted beets and radishes), five pizzas, eight classical pastas and specialties, chicken and meat entrees, plus the soup special of the day.
“The real crowd pleasers remain the chicken Marsala and chicken Parmesan. Can’t beat ‘em,” Flora said. “We’re still relying on local fish suppliers and farmers markets for produce and specials.”
Another big draw at Café della Via is their selection of wines, many of them from the Central Coast.
“The wine list is still the big, fun list that people have come to expect here,” he said of the wine bar.
Meanwhile, in the dining area, “We didn’t change too much … some décor, new tables, lamp fixtures and pictures,” he said.
So, the setting and the experience should seem as familiar as the fare.
Flora reopened the downtown cafe on June 11 after buying it in April, upgrading the space and changing out some kitchen equipment.
The Hallmeyer family had owned and run the eatery for 15 years, Flora said.
“Denise bought the restaurant in 2004 from Troy Larkin and Donovan Schmit, who started Café della Via.”
Now, the small restaurant has begun its next act under the guidance of someone who’s known it well and loved it enough to reopen it as its new leader.
Café della Via, located at 155 N. Ocean Ave., is open from 5 to 9 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays. For details or to make a reservation, call 805-995-1610.
