If you visit the plaza outside the American Airlines Center before Dallas Mavericks or Dallas Stars games, “it’s jamming,” said restaurateur Prob Arora.
He and his business partner Sanjay Joshi hope to capture that energy with their new restaurant Urban Italia, which starts serving pasta on Jan. 9, 2026.
The restaurant replaces the former WFAA-Channel 8 TV studio, where passersby could watch meterologist Pete Delkus deliver the evening weather report for about 15 years, until its filming operation moved in 2021.
This corner spot in Victory Park was not meant to be a restaurant, its operators told The Dallas Morning News. But CEO Joshi and COO Arora, who run several other D-FW restaurants including high-end Indian restaurant Sanjh in Irving, saw an opportunity.
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Urban Italia moves into a prominent corner of Victory Park, in front of the AAC.
Tom Fox / Staff Photographer
“Location, location, location,” Arora said of the empty TV studio with a front-row seat to the growing financial corridor in Dallas where Goldman Sachs is building an 800,000-square-foot campus for 5,000 people. Y’all Street is happening.
After two years of construction, which included installing a kitchen and a pizza room and an unexpected $2 million in additional construction and design costs, this restaurant at Victory Plaza is ready to serve.
It’s Joshi and Arora’s first Italian restaurant.
They wanted a “marquee chef,” both said, so they hired Top Chef: Seattle contestant Carla Pellegrino, who appeared on the TV show in Season 10. (Her season on Bravo was memorable because chef Kristen Kish won and later replaced Padma Lakshmi as host of Top Chef.)
Executive Chef Carla Pellegrino prepares spaghetti at Urban Italia in Dallas.
Tom Fox / Staff Photographer
Pellegrino relocated from Las Vegas to Dallas for the job. She opened a bistro called Teatro in Grapevine that closed in mid-2025. During that time, the team has been working on opening Urban Italia. Its Portuguese-Italian chef described the menu as “very simple,” with olive oil, salt and fresh ingredients making up much of the menu. “I almost never use butter,” Pellegrino said.
The menu includes hearty dishes like chicken Parmigiana, spaghetti and meatballs, and a New York strip alongside lighter options like shrimp cocktail; calamari, shrimp, lobster and crab in citronette; and a California salad with mangoes, tomatoes, cucumbers and avocado.
“I want people to appreciate the simplicity of good Italian food,” she said.
Mediterranean salad is a mix of tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, onion and feta at Urban Italia in Dallas’ Victory Park.
Tom Fox / Staff Photographer
Pellegrino has opened more than a half-dozen restaurants. She’s known for Rao’s, the red-sauce Italian joint in Las Vegas. (Consumers may also know Rao’s for its brand of pasta sauces sold in grocery stores.)
Pellegrino is a tiny, fiery chef who seems ready to see the plaza filled with sports fans. One of the restaurant’s most appealing seats will be at the indoor-outdoor bar, which has sight lines to the front doors of the AAC.
Designers added wooden “trees” inside Urban Italia in Dallas to give texture to the high ceiling restaurant, CEO Sanjay Joshi said.
Tom Fox / Staff Photographer
The owners also hope businesspeople think of Urban Italia for lunches and dinners. The high ceiling restaurant with gray, tan and cream finishes feels a bit like a boardroom. Even the glassed-in private dining room looks like a former TV exec’s office. (But, it isn’t: The entire space was gutted after WFAA moved out.)
Eventually, an Indian restaurant called Saffron House might open on the second floor, up a flight of backlit wood stairs. Joshi said they’re focused on the Italian restaurant first, which seats 100 people downstairs and another 80 on the wraparound patio.
Urban Italia is at 3030 Nowitzki Way, Dallas. It opens Jan. 9, 2026, dinner only. (Lunch comes later.) Valet parking available in front of Victory Plaza on non-game days.
Prob Arora, chief operating officer of Tivona (right) and Sanjay Joshi, CEO, are opening Urban Italia in Dallas. They operate several other restaurants, including Sanjh and Nirvana, both in Irving.
Tom Fox / Staff Photographer
Dining and Cooking