A new take in an old familiar space
Scalo readies to reopen mid-June
For more than 30 years, Scalo stood at the top of Albuquerque’s food scene, serving its take on Northern Italian fine dining.
Now with new ownership, a new chef and a $1 million renovation, the Nob Hill restaurant is preparing to reopen after being closed for nearly a year and a half.
Doors will open again next week, according to co-owner Kristie Sawant.
Although the restaurant is opening in the same space it has occupied since the ’80s, the team behind
the reopening doesn’t intend to keep everything the same.
“We still want to bring back the familiarity,” Sawant said. “This is Scalo, a very similar feel to Scalo that they’re used to — but with a fresh new taste on the menu and a fresh new look.”
In addition to a cosmetic face-lift, the menu will be fully revamped.
Executive Chef Gaetano Ascione said his approach to cooking is “simple, rustic and brutal.”
Ascione has spent his decadeslong career working around the world and will be bringing that expertise to Albuquerque.
He said the reopening of Scalo is an opportunity to elevate the restaurant while bringing something new and different to the city.
The intent of the menu is to avoid boring or slipping into familiarity with the same dishes on the menu for years at a time.
“What they did was good, but what we have to do is very good,” Ascione said.
He said the menu will change frequently as a way to expand people’s palates.
This will be the first foray into the restaurant world for Sawant and her husband, Prashant Sawant. Both spent the majority of their careers as engineers and took on ownership as a passion project because the two were such fans of the restaurant.
With the reopening, Kristie said she realizes many will be drawn to the restaurant due to a sense of familiarity, but she hopes to “wow” them with something new.
“When we started this project the whole aim was a total experience of good dining for our customers,” Prashant Sawant said. “Good service, good ambiance.”
The restaurant was initially slated to open this spring, but the date was delayed several months as New Mexico battled with the coronavirus.
It is unclear what the opening day will look like — restaurants only started welcoming dine-in customers, at 50% capacity, on Monday.