{"id":19711,"date":"2026-09-02T17:01:44","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T17:01:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/19711\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T17:01:44","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T17:01:44","slug":"a-michelin-recommended-restaurants-new-lake-norman-location-is-opening-soon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/19711\/","title":{"rendered":"A Michelin-recommended restaurant\u2019s new Lake Norman location is opening soon"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Michelin-recommended favorite for Italian food in Charlotte is kicking open the doors to a new location in Lake Norman.<\/p>\n

Little Mama’s third location will open for business in Cornelius on Monday, Sept. 7, expanding the reach of the restaurant that began as a sister spinoff of a revered Charlotte classic, Mama Ricotta’s.<\/p>\n

The restaurant took over the space that most recently held the short-lived GOAT Pizza, opened by celebrity chef David Burke in partnership with Joe Douglas of 131 Main Restaurant and Robert Maynard of Famous Toastery.<\/p>\n

Praised by Michelin for its house-made mozzarella and pastas, the newest location will carry on with a 4,300-foot space with 140 seats for date night dinners, family meals and meet-ups with friends.<\/p>\n

Like the Rea Farms location, the Cornelius restaurant will feature a brick oven pizza program to expand its menu lineup. Other best-selling dishes to try include the penne alla vodka, lasagna and chicken Parmesan.<\/p>\n

\"Little<\/p>\n

Little Mama\u2019s stracciatella.<\/p>\n

“Little Mama’s is a heartfelt project for me, built on the simple yet delicious flavors of my childhood in New England,” Frank Scibelli, founder of FS Food Group, said in a news release.<\/p>\n

“These are the foods I grew up with and love to share \u2014 classic Italian-American dishes, made from scratch and served with genuine hospitality. We cannot wait to bring that tradition to Cornelius and Lake Norman.”<\/p>\n

The Little Mamas team includes chef-partner Tom Dyrness, FS Food Group Chief Operating Officer Stephanie Kalish and beverage director Mary Wilson, who has curated the restaurant’s wine and cocktail list.<\/p>\n

“We can’t wait to bring quality Italian wines to pair with the lake life,” Wilson said in the news release.<\/p>\n

\"Michelin-recommended<\/p>\n

Michelin-recommended Little Mama\u2019s is opening its third location in Cornelius on Monday, Sept. 7.<\/p>\n

Little Mama’s Italian<\/p>\n

Location: 9623 Bailey Road, Suite 100, Cornelius (opens Sept. 7).<\/p>\n

Location: SouthPark, 4521 Sharon Road<\/p>\n

Location: Rea Farms, 9825 Sandy Rock Place, #1A<\/p>\n

Menu<\/p>\n

Cuisine: Italian<\/p>\n

Hours: Sunday\u2013Thursday, 11 a.m.-9 p.m.; and Friday\u2013Saturday: 11 a.m.\u201310 p.m.<\/p>\n

Instagram: @littlemamasitalian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Michelin-recommended favorite for Italian food in Charlotte is kicking open the doors to a new location in Lake Norman. Little Mama’s third location will open for business in Cornelius on Monday, Sept. 7, expanding the reach of the restaurant that began as a sister spinoff of a revered Charlotte classic, Mama Ricotta’s. The restaurant<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19712,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[12274,16910,16932,57,49,50,16933,797,16931],"class_list":["post-19711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-italian-restaurants","tag-charlotte","tag-cornelius","tag-fs-food-group","tag-italian","tag-italian-restaurant","tag-italian-restaurants","tag-lake-norman","tag-michelin","tag-wilson"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dnc\/117202523550777537","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}