Keller is getting a new Italian restaurant from a familiar name: Called Italian Table, it will open at 1520 N. Main St., in the bustling Center Stage mixed-use development near Keller-Haslet Road, where it’s slated to debut by July.
Italian Table comes from restaurant veteran Phil Doko, who also owns Lone Star Cafe, a breakfast and brunch restaurant he opened in February at 1500 N. Main St., in the same center as Italian Table. They’re next door and connected by two patios.
The menu at Italian Table will feature pasta dishes such as chicken fettuccine alfredo, lobster ravioli, shrimp scampi, and rigatoni a la vodka. Entrees include veal, salmon, chicken, lamb, and pizza like the White Wonder, with chicken and alfredo sauce.
According to Doko’s son, Elham, who’s also general manager at Lone Star Cafe, the menu and website are almost finalized. He says the price range for the menu will average $15-$20 with “heavy portions.”
Doko is returning to what he knows best with Italian Table, as he originally got his start in the restaurant industry with Italian cuisine. He first learned to cook in Albania, Italy, then New York. After moving to Texas, he opened his first place — an Italian restaurant— Roma’s Italian, in Lancaster, in 2000.
“We got a good deal right next door to the Lone Star Cafe, and the realtors gave us an even better deal,” Elham says. “Our family had an Italian restaurant in Keller a while ago called Tuscan Italian Bistro in Golden Triangle, but we left because of all the construction. So, this brings us back to a realm that we know and love.”
The restaurant will also have a bar.
“We’re debating full bar at the moment, but there will for sure be beer and wine,” Elham says. “We’ll also allow anyone who wants to bring their own wine, with a small corkage fee.”
The Center Stage development was approved in 2020 as a mixed-use development, with 475 apartments, 57 single-family homes, retail, and restaurants.