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Giovanni’s Italian Ristorante is now open in Sauk Rapids, adding a new Italian restaurant option to the area.
The business is located in the former El Loro Mexican Restaurant location at 15 N. Benton Dr. and opened its doors on Sunday, according to a Facebook post from the restaurant.
Giovanni’s serves a traditional Italian menu, with pastas, beef scaloppini, seafood and other items. It will also offer appetizers like calamari and burrata, the restaurant’s main chef Joel Santos said. He added that nearly everything is made from scratch.
“Tiramisu, crème brûlée, lasagnas, manicotti. Everything we do is handmade,” he said.
The Sauk Rapids spot is the business’ first location outside of Wisconsin, where it operates another Giovanni’s in Hudson. The owner of the building in Sauk Rapids, Marcos Gomez, is the same owner for the Hudson location. Santos said he thought the Sauk Rapids area could benefit from another Italian restaurant option.
Gomez hopes the new restaurant could help revive the space, Santos said.
“He wanted to give it a second option, or a second opportunity, to open up another Italian restaurant,” he said. “At the same time… we could split all of the personnel that is in Hudson and try to spread all around between Wisconsin and Minnesota.”
Sunday was Giovanni’s first day in business, and Santos said they already had a steady flow of customers excited to try the new restaurant. In about a week, the restaurant also plans to add rotating specials to its menu with a new special dish every night.
The space was also remodeled from the previous restaurant and now includes a large room available for reservations for corporate events, parties and other gatherings.
Giovanni’s is open 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday through Sunday.
Teagan King covers business and development for the St. Cloud Times. She can be reached at teking@gannett.com.