After nearly a year of popping up around New Orleans area bars, Fico Cucina has a permanent home with another brick and mortar venue in the works.
After years of working in restaurants around the New Orleans area, Valeriano Chiella thought he would take a break and slow down by operating a food pop-up in 2024. He said cooking in a restaurant can sometimes lead to a disconnect with the customer, and that food becomes more about presentation than about the customer’s experience of it.
“It gives me a different, a different perspective of what my job really is,” Chiella said. “The food pop-up made me a better person, a better cook, not in the sense of cooking, but in a sense of understanding.”
While Chiella hoped the pop-up would allow for more downtime so he could make his own schedule, the demand for his food didn’t allow it.
“My wife was like, ‘Yeah, you will be home,’ and then it never happened,” he said.
He was approached to run the kitchen in a new music venue slated to open in 2026 on Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard, but first, the owners offered him a permanent spot at their other venue, Balcony Bar.
His menu at the Uptown spot contains all the food that customers have come to enjoy when he would serve food at Second Line Brewing, Miel Brewery and Taproom, Peychaud’s Bar and other New Orleans hotspots. But now, with a kitchen, he can add more to his dishes and refine them a bit more than with his pop-up operation.
One of Fico Cucina’s most popular menu items is the gnocchi, which can be served with spicy vodka or cacio e pepe sauce.
BY CHELSEA SHANNON | Staff writer
“It was amazing. The more you get to be connected with the guests, the more you understand what they’re looking for” he said.
The most popular item at Balcony Bar is his baked gnocchi with vodka sauce, mozzarella and a little Parmesan cheese.
“Over here, we add some basil and olive oil. Because we have a cool kitchen, we can refrigerate everything,” he said.
Chiella said the food he serves draws upon his roots and experience. He moved here from a town outside of Florence, Italy, after meeting his wife, who is from Mandeville. After years of working in French Quarter pizza shops and restaurants like Domenica, he’s produced “a version of Italian street food, but approachable for the American palate.”
Chiella said that even in the first few weeks of operating Balcony Bar, some of his regulars have come back to find him for items like the pillowy-soft gnocchi and the savory chicken Milanese sandwich, but this time the location will be the same for their next visit.
Dining and Cooking