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Sogno Toscano, an Italian wine bar and cafe, will open a new location in Phoenix this winter.The cafe will offer Italian coffee, wine and food, including imported products from the Old Country.The Phoenix location’s menu will feature brunch and dinner options.
Sogno Toscano, a wine bar and cafe with ingredients imported from Italy, will open in Arcadia Place in Phoenix this winter, according to Pietro Brembilla, one of the founders.
Sogno Toscano is primarily a wholesale company — it supplies restaurants across the country with olive oil, cheese, meat, pasta and hundreds of other products imported from Italy. However, the company opened its first cafe in New York City in 2021 and has since expanded to four locations, two in New York and two in California.
The cafe will serve coffee, wine and food, as well as imported food products.
“You’ll be able to shop for a little burrata that flew from Italy a couple of days before and a pound of prosciutto if you want that,” Brembilla said. “Or you can stay and enjoy your afternoon with friends and have a bottle of, I don’t know, Sassicaia or whatever wine from Tuscany and have your night that way.”
Sogno Toscano’s long history in metro Phoenix
The founders of Sogno Toscano, which is headquartered in Tempe, have a long-running relationship with metro Phoenix.
Brembilla grew up in Italy, but his family had a ranch they used as a vacation in Scottsdale. He has fond memories of riding horses there during the summers as a kid. “All that cowboy life, I grew up with that,” Brembilla said.
After graduating high school, Brembilla moved from Italy to New York City with his best friend Brian Persico for a temporary “sabbatical.” Both of their families owned olive groves, so they started pitching hand-labeled bottles of their olive oil to restaurants.
“A couple of months turned into our life choice and still here we are in the U.S.,” Brembilla said.
They founded Sogno Toscano, “Tuscan Dream,” in 2008. In 2010, the pair moved Sogno Toscano’s headquarters to Tempe because the Valley was the place in the U.S. that Brembilla felt most familiar with.
What’s on the menu at Sogno Toscano Wine Bar and Market
The menu will be very similar to the Santa Monica location, Brembilla said. In addition to a full espresso menu, the cafe will serve both brunch and dinner. The brunch menu includes pastries, a smoked salmon tartine, omelets and their signature dish, schiaccaite, Tuscan-style sandwiches on focaccia.
The dinner menu uses fresh pasta made in Italy and flown to the store every week for dishes like beef and pork-stuffed tortellini or pasta dressed in pesto or black truffle.
The wine bar offers over 30 wines, split into reds, whites and dessert wines. Most are from Tuscany, but a few are from other places in Italy.
Expected opening date: Winter 2025.
Details: 3950 E. Indian School Road, Phoenix. sognotoscano.com.
Reach the reporter at reia.li@gannett.com. Follow @reia_reports on Instagram.
Dining and Cooking