A new family-owned Italian restaurant specializing in freshly made pastas will soon open in the South Main area. Called Bocca Osteria Romana, it will open this summer at 411 S. Main St. #104 in the space last occupied by Rancho Loma Vineyards.

The restaurant will be the first stateside concept from a trio of Texas-born family members - brothers Alfonso and Alessandro Salvatore and their cousin Eduardo Mariel. The Salvatore brothers own three restaurants in San Juan, Puerto Rico: two locations of a Mexican restaurant called Acapulco Taaqueria Mexicana and the original location of Bocca Osterie Romana.

Mariel is co-owner of the upcoming Fort Worth restaurant, which he says should be open in late June or early July.

“We’ve been looking to open a concept in the United States,” says Mariel. “We ended up picking Texas. It’s our home state. We love it here. But there’s so much Mexican food here already, we thought we’d start with Italian. My cousins are Italian, so it’s a cuisine we know very well.”

The three were born in McAllen, Texas and have lived in Mexico, Italy, and Puerto Rico. As with their other concepts, Alessandro will serve as the restaurant’s executive chef and Alfonso will handle operations. Mariel will assist with operations for the new Fort Worth restaurant.

The Fort Worth location of Bocca will be similar to the original in that Rome-inspired cuisine will be the focal point, with an emphasis on housemade al dente pastas. Those pastas will include lasagna al forno, a Roman-style lasagna made with bolognese and bechamel; gnocchi alla Sorrentina, a Southern Italian dish - named after its city of origin, Sorrento, Italy - comprised of potato gnocchi, tomato sauce, mozzarella, and parmesan; spaghetti alla carbonara, made with guanciale, percorino romano cheese, and crushed black pepper; and the classic cacio e pepe.

Entrees will include eggplant parmesan, seasonal ravioli, and osso bucco. “We slow cook our osso bucco for about eight hours,” Mariel says. “And it’s served over a bed of freshly made risotto. It’s phenomenal.”

Featured appetizers will include burrata served with cherry tomato confit and calamari with an arrabbiata sauce. Mariel says the restaurant will utilize seasonal and local ingredients whenever possible.

There will be wine, beer, and cocktails, too. Italian wines will be featured, of course.

“The wine list won’t be 25 pages long,” Mariel says. “It’ll be short, simple, and full of good wines - nothing too fancy, nothing too cheap. Like any good Italian restaurant in Italy, we’ll have a good house wine, too, so you may not even need to look at the wine list.”

The restaurant’s dining room will seat about 40 people. A patio will offer additional seating for about 20.

Diners will go through a secluded alley to access the entrance, giving the restaurant a cool, speakeasy component.

“We’re tucked away down a little alley next door to Emporium Pies,” Mariel says. “We kinda like that. We’ll have signs out on Main Street, so people will know we’re here. But being tucked away like that, it creates the air of mystique and personality.”

Mariel has spent several years working with Italian cuisine. He worked in the original location of Bocca in Puerto Rico with his cousins and later, while a student at Marymount Manhattan College in New York, he worked as a server at the Upper West Side location of Felice, a string of Tuscan-inspired restaurants with locations across New York.

Following his time in New York, he and his girlfriend lived in Italy for two years, where other family members ran an Italian restaurant in Florence. Mariel currently lives in Dallas but is moving to Fort Worth to be close to the restaurant.

Mariel and his girlfriend work at Lots of Furniture, a high-end antique shop in Dallas that specializes in European antiques. Many of the restaurant’s furniture and accent pieces are coming from the shop.

“One of the great things about working there is we’ve been able to pick out a few pieces for the restaurant,” Mariel says. “Using real antiques, some of the pieces are a century old, will help add to the warm, homey atmosphere we’re creating there.”

The ultimate goal, Mariel says, is to recreate an experience you’d have at a real Italian restaurant in Rome.

“Every Italian restaurant has their own take on Italian food,” he says. “Our take is straightforward: you’re in Rome, walking down the street, and you pop into a little mom-and-pop place where the grandma has been making the gnocchi for 20 years. We want our restaurant to be like that, a little family-run place with good food and good wine where everybody knows everybody. For us, it’s all about family.”