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Business & Tech

Italian Grill Coming to 1 W. State Street

Claudio Sandolo will open an Italian grill at 1 W. State Street in early 2012.

After a two-year vacancy, 1 W. State Street will soon house another restaurant: an Italian grill in the vein of owner Claudio Sandolo's restaurant Spasso in Philadelphia.

"I have a lot of friends that live [in the Media area]and they've been begging me to do a restaurant out there," Sandolo said.  "I haven't seen any operation out there like mine and I think I could do very well. So when the building came along, we decided to jump on it."

Media Borough Council to Sandolo in early July. Sandolo's bid was the highest, but on whether to accept Sandolo's $670,000 bid or Heritage Design Collaborative's . The early July decision was 4-3 in favor of Sandolo.

Sandolo said his plans are essentially to recreate .

"It's going to be about the same menu, about the same price point—moderately priced and very good food," he said.

Spasso focuses on fresh seafood and meat, fresh vegetables and homemade desserts. The menu ranges from appetizers like caprese ($8), goat cheese and walnut salad ($9) and escargot ($9.50), to dishes like veal porcini ($19.50), crab ravioli ($18.50) and zuppa di pesce ($24).

Spasso was recently selected as one of America's Top 1000 Italian Restaurants by Zagat, according to the restaurant's website.

While the menu and price points will probably not be exactly the same at the 1 W. State Street restaurant, they will likely be similar, Sandolo said.

Sandolo will close on the property in mid-August, he said, after which permits will be sought for the demolition and construction. Actual on-site work should begin in early September, with a projected opening date in January or February 2012.

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One of the conditions of the sale was preservation of the building's façade and a conservation easement in order to keep the historical aspects of the building, according to the agreement of sale.

As a result, Sandolo will do little work outside of the building in terms of construction and design.

"The inside is already laid out as a restaurant, so we're going to do the same layout as was there, cosmetic work, a new kitchen, flooring, new paint and furniture," Sandolo said.

The 1 W. State Street building has sat vacant since the former restaurant, Brodeur’s, vacated in Nov. 2009. Before that, the property housed New Orlean’s Café.

Even though other restaurants have failed at the location, Sandolo is confident that his restaurant will not, because of the quality of the food, the moderate price point, and very good service, he said.

"I've taken restaurants that have failed before and turned them around, and I think that's what I'm going to do here as well," Sandolo said.

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