BRANFORD — After opening this summer, the new Radici at The Stand has transformed the former eatery located in an old Mobil service station into a trendy Italian place.
But the new fine-dining restaurant is still a work in progress.
The new owners are continually tweaking their menu and just added lunch Tuesday through Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. with special added brunch items on Sunday at the Branford restaurant.
The owners of Radici have kept part of the name and the four garage doors, which now are window walls in the dining room. In addition to gutting the inside and reinventing the outside with firepits, a pergola and patio, the menu is completely their own.
Radici is owned by members of a well-known restaurant family, the Delmonacos, who own Anthony’s Ocean View in New Haven, a popular wedding, corporate event and gala site for 40 years.
“For us, Radici isn’t simply another business venture. It’s an extension of what our family has spent generations building — a love of food, hospitality and bringing people together,” said Natalie Mazzanti, a co-owner at Anthony’s, along with her siblings and parents, and a partner at Radici with her husband, Gennaro, and son, Luca.
Customers enjoy the food and are “in awe” about the complete makeover of the place, she said. “They’re absolutely in love with it.”
Since opening, the couple has traveled back and forth to Italy to get ideas for the menu, she said.
“We started off thinking OK, we’re going to have a little bit of everything. But ultimately, we are definitely Italian,” Mazzanti said. The couple is taste-testing every day, and they talk about new menu items “all day long” — especially for dessert, she said.
“My husband is in love with desserts,” she said, adding that when he sees repeat customers or someone new, “he’s always running to the back and creating some beautiful dessert display that he just brings to the table.”
Dining and Cooking