A new Italian restaurant is coming to the Metcalfe Hotel in Ottawa’s downtown later this month.
Carletto, an Italian trattoria, will open at the hotel at 123 Metcalfe St. on Aug. 31.
The restaurant is owned by Gray Collection, a Montreal-based hospitality group that has Auberge du Vieux-Port in Montreal and Cocotte Bistro, also at the Metcalfe Hotel, in its portfolio.
The restaurant will offer lunch, dinner and weekend brunch. It has 134 indoor seats and a 24-seat terrace.
The menu will highlight quality ingredients while putting a modern spin on Italian classics such as house-made focaccia, rigatoni alla vodka, spicy soppressata pizza and chicken puttanesca, the company said in a news release Wednesday,
“Guests looking for a little culinary theatre can also enjoy pasta prepared tableside in a wheel of Parmesan, while pizzas are baked in an impressive oven imported from Italy and finished with terracotta tiles,” according to the release.
The new restaurant will be led by executive chef Simon Brière-Audet, who also serves as executive chef of Cocotte Bistro, and consulting chef Giovanni Vella, who created Carletto’s menu.
“With Carletto, we wanted to create much more than an Italian restaurant. We envisioneda place where people come as much to share a meal as they do to enjoy the atmosphere, have a drink at the bar or discover cuisine inspired by Italian traditions and reimagined through a contemporary lens. Every detail, from the décor and wine list to our spectacular cheese wheel and oven imported from Italy, contributes to creating a warm and authentic experience,” Dimitri Antonopoulos, president of Gray Collection, said in the release.
The name Carletto is a nod to Charles Theophilus Metcalfe, the namesake of Metcalfe Street and the Metcalfe Hotel. In Italian, Carletto is the diminutive of Carlo, the Italian equivalent of Charles.
The interior design of the space is inspired by contemporary Italian design, the release said, with a large central bar, arches and terracotta tones.
