Tag: Elfo’s Northern Italian Cuisine

Francesca Grisanti

Alex Grisanti at his new Elfo Grisanti’s Northern Italian Cuisine

The fine dining room of Elfo Grisanti’s Northern Italian Cuisine — Alex Grisanti’s new restaurant in Southaven — is slated to open in mid December.

“I’m ready, baby,” Grisanti says.

One side of the restaurant — “Elfo’s Pizzeria”— already is open and features the same type of Northern Italian-style pizza Grisanti serves at his 9 Dough 1 pizza truck.

“The pizza side is open and the food truck is running,” Grisanti says. “The pizza side has been running for a week consistently. I’m done with that now. I’m moving on to the dining room side.”

His new Elfo’s will be reminiscent of the Elfo’s restaurant he owned for years in Germantown, Grisanti says.

Describing the dining room, he says, “It’s comfy, cozy. It’s beautiful like my other Elfo’s. It’s got gold metallic walls with white tablecloths.”

Francesca Grisanti

Elfo Grisanti’s Northern Italian Cuisine

The walls also “are covered with black-and-white family photos like my old Elfo’s.”

The bar, he says, has a white marble checkered pattern on it.

The restaurant is “going to be very quaint. It’s only going to seat about 50 and the bar, 15.”

His new Elfo’s also reminds him of the original Ronnie Grisanti’s restaurant, owned by his dad, the late Ronnie Grisanti. “This place reminds me of  Union and Marshall with the Ronnie Grisanti’s atmosphere. It’s going to have pictures hung in the bathrooms, family trees going down the walls. It’s going to be beautiful when it’s done. And we’re getting done.”

As for the bar, he says, “We’re going to have that Elfo’s and Ronnie Grisanti vibe at the bar going on. The bar is separated by a wall.”

Customers will be in the bar “whooping it up” while diners on the other side are eating.

Francesca Grisanti

Elfo’s Pizzaria at Elfo Grisanti’s Northern Italian Cuisine

For the food, Grisanti says, “This place is going to have the Union and Marshall menu, but with nightly specials.”

Fare will include dishes Elfo’s and the Grisanti family are famous for. “Lasagna, homemade ravioli, spinach, garlic bread.”

This will included his chicken raviolis and his “homemade Bolognese sauce with tagliatelle  thick pasta.”

And, he says, “My pasta special and beef special of the day every day.”

The restaurant was named after Grisanti’s grandfather, the late restaurateur Elfo Grisanti. “The guy who really started everything. He’s the one who started the cooking and making us what we are.”

Alex Grisanti is ready for diners to experience that Grisanti vibe in Southaven. “Glasses tinkling, people giggling, a little Frank Sinatra in the background, nobody with frowns on their faces, everybody positive, loving to be here. Loving them to be here. I want these people to be embraced by the whole Grisanti atmosphere.”

Elfo Grisanti’s Northern Italian Cuisine is at 5627 Getwell Road; (662) 470-4497