Veteran restaurateur Valentino Stakaj is working to open Da Fortunato Restaurant at the site of the shuttered Farm Table and the former Cantina Beach restaurant in Old Saybrook at 1596 Boston Post Road.
Stakaj does not have a definite timeline for opening, and said it will open sometime in 2026, “but not yet, because everything I’m doing – I’m doing to make it right.”
Da Fortunato, Stakaj said, will offer Italian cuisine and he plans to hire chefs directly from Italy who can help him elevate the place to be “one of the greatest spots.”
Stakaj, a native Albanian, is a well-known figure in the New Haven area food scene. He said he owns Il Gabbiano Italian Steakhouse and Adrianna’s in New Haven and La Lupa in North Haven.
And in between driving to and from all his eateries, he said he still works in the kitchen when he can.
At Da Fortunato, he said, “I’m redesigning everything on site, and after I redesign, I’m going to go with my food and concept as well.” He also plans to redesign the exterior of the building.
He said the menu will be similar to Adriana’s, which offers a variety of pastas – including fettuccine with salmon, shrimp, cherry tomatoes and garlic stirred into a hollowed-out Parmesan cheese wheel, which flavors the dish as it melts from the heat of the pasta. Also on the menu is chicken, veal, grilled rib eye steak and fresh seafood dishes. These include a simple seafood salad with calamari, mussels, shrimp, clams, cuttlefish, onion, celery, tomatoes and lemon.
Stakaj, 54, has been dedicated to mastering Italian cuisine his whole career. He moved to Italy from Albania by himself at 13 and began his career as a dishwasher in a restaurant in Rome, he previously told the New Haven Register.
He came to the U.S. in 2003, doing stints in restaurants in Michigan, the Bronx, N.Y., and Il Capriccio Ristorante in Whippany, N.J., which he called “one of the best Italian restaurants I ever worked.” And he moved up to chef along the way.
At Il Capriccio, he was ambitious and told his employers, “I was very straightforward. I said, ‘listen, I’m going to work for you until I find my place, and I’m going to go on my own.’ And I did it.”
Stakaj came to New Haven in 2005 and with his cousins, bought Adriana’s – his first restaurant, he said.
His most recent eatery was Il Gabbiano Italian Steakhouse on Long Wharf in New Haven opening in 2022, at a prime spot on the water that was home to the former Lenny & Joe’s Fish Tale, Leon’s and Rusty Scupper.
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This article originally published at New Haven restaurateur plans to open next Italian restaurant in Old Saybrook.
Dining and Cooking