Luca Lagotto, Little Donkey become free agents in Birmingham food scene as Pihakis Restaurant Group craters

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) — With a famed Birmingham culinary group slowly shedding the many restaurants that were once its crown jewels, two of them have now broken away to go it on their own.

Luca Lagotto, located just a block off 18th Street in downtown Homewood, has started a new chapter under new management and a new name, Salice, an Italian word meaning “willow.” Luca executive chef Rita Bernhardt will remain at the helm at the restaurant.

The change comes as the restaurant has officially broken away from Pihakis Restaurant Group, whose light in the culinary community has rapidly dimmed over the past few weeks with the closing of several of its restaurants, including all of its Hero Doughnuts locations, as well as the Valley Post entertainment district in Chelsea.

“I have had a lot of support from the restaurant community here,” Bernhardt told CBS 42 just as the restaurant was opening for its lunch hour Friday. “There are only positive, supportive things here to keep this place being a neighborhood restaurant.”

Bernhardt said that while the restaurant had a new name and would be trying new kinds of recipes, it would still serve its signature Italian dishes.

At the same time, Little Donkey founder Joshua Gentry has taken back the reins of the restaurant serving “Mexican food with a Southern Soul” that he founded in 2012. Staff who were reached for comment Friday afternoon confirmed the change in management. There is also a Little Donkey in Montgomery.

Neither Bernhardt nor Gentry have confirmed details surrounding their departure from PRG, the brainchild of Jim ‘N Nick’s Bar-B-Q co-founder Nick Pihakis. Over the last month, the group has shuttered several of its restaurants, been sued by a vendor and has liens filed against it by its landlord for millions of dollars.

“I’ve been here since Day 1,” Bernhardt said. “I’m still here and I’m grateful.”

This story will be updated.

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