After Tony Mandina’s closes, a classic New Orleans Italian restaurant will open in its place

Tony Mandina’s on the West Bank served its last chicken parm and lasagna over the weekend, closing Saturday and ending a four-decade run for the family-run restaurant. But very soon the red sauce will be ladled out again here as another famous name for Creole-Italian food takes its place.

The Mid-City restaurant Venezia will open a second location in the former home of Tony Mandina’s, confirmed Venezia proprietor Nicholas Bologna.

He has a 30-year lease on the building at 1915 Pratt St. and plans to open the doors here for a second Venezia in mid-July. It will serve the same menu as the Venezia on North Carrollton Avenue, which includes steak and pizza on its long roster of Creole-Italian dishes.

There are no changes planned at the original Mid-City location, said Bologna.

Growing in Gretna

The move comes as Bologna had been looking for a second location to expand capacity for a restaurant that draws regulars from around the region.

“I’m constantly having to turn away parties and rehearsal dinners, and this will give us so much more room,” he said.

The old Tony Mandina’s is roughly twice the size of the original Venezia, with a main dining room, bar, private dining room and a banquet space for about 100 people. 

Bologna said he plans to retain Tony Mandina’s staff for this new Venezia. Getting them back to work is one reason he wants to open swiftly. Keeping the same staff will also contribute to what in some ways will be a restaurant of blended traditions.

“It’s two long-established Italian restaurants coming together,” Bologna said.  “It’s going to be Venezia, but people used to going to Tony Mandina’s will see a lot of the same faces with a lot more to offer on the menu.”

Tony Mandina’s has no connection to the much older Mandina’s Restaurant on Canal Street, located a few blocks from Venezia. The West Bank restaurant was opened by Grace and Tony Mandina 1982, and was more recently run by their daughter Kolette Mandina-Ditta.

The restaurant was prized for its old-school flavors and hospitality, with a menu that ran through stuffed artichokes and turtle soup, specialties rarely seen outside home cooking (like braciolone) and house specials named for family members, like chicken Lindsey Grace (paneed chicken over pasta Alfredo).

It was a destination for celebrations and gatherings, and in this way served as an adjunct to home for many of its regulars.

In June, the Tony Mandina’s family announced they would close the restaurant, while continuing to develop their retail line, which includes the restaurant's red gravy and "Tony Mandina's Kitchen," the cookbook written by Mandina-Ditta and Poppy Tooker.

Venezia roots

Venezia got its start in Mid-City in 1957 at a time when many from the city’s Italian community were moving from the French Quarter (once a bastion of Italian immigrants) to other neighborhoods. It was the restaurant that introduced many in New Orleans to pizza back in the 1950s. It was also known for the stories that swirled around it in the early days.

Venezia was originally operated by Anthony Carollo, the son of notorious mob boss Sylvestro “Silver Dollar Sam” Carollo, who would ultimately be better known for his own role in organized crime than as a restaurateur. The Bologna family bought the business in 1987, and has run it since.

For dessert?

The original Venezia is a block from Angelo Brocato Ice Cream, the Sicilian dessert emporium, and the two Italian spots have an entwined relationship. Many customers make the short walk from Venezia’s dining room to the gelato counter at Angelo Brocato into a two-part meal outing.

That’s why Bologna is working with Angelo Brocato’s on a dessert menu for the new Gretna restaurant, which will include gelato and pastries, and also packaged desserts for sale at the bar to bring home.

One change at the new Venezia, however, will be cannoli made in-house. Angelo Brocato is famous for these, but in the way every Italian kitchen has faith in its meatballs, Bologna prides himself on his own cannoli and will serve these in Gretna.

“Brocato’s are great, I just think mine are better,” Bologna said.

Venezia

134 N. Carrollton Ave., (504) 488-7991

And

1915 Pratt St., Gretna (projected opening mid-July)

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