Ohio-based Chef Art Pour Restaurant Group opens Leo's Italian Social at Piedmont Town Center
Leo’s Italian Social is dishing up traditional Italian favorites, and chef-drive fare from its SouthPark location at Piedmont Town Center.
That 8,200-square-foot restaurant opened earlier this month at 4720 Piedmont Row Drive, formerly home to Brio. Leo’s Italian Social is the first in North Carolina for Ohio-based Chef Art Pour Restaurant Group. The company previously said it expected to invest more than $1 million into that restaurant. Final project costs were not immediately available. It aims to be a neighborhood gathering place with an expanded bar and patio seating.
“We want to have everybody feel like they’re transported, but they take away a strong sense of hospitality,” says Greg Roach, regional director for Leo’s.
Roach says Leo’s dishes up traditional Italian favorites as well as chef-driven options. Pasta, dressings and sauces are made in house, as is pizza dough and bread.
“All of that adds to the chef culture. Every dish is made to order,” Roach says. “We want to make a connection with our guests. Service and hospitality is about a feeling we create, not a transaction.”
Best sellers include chicken Parmesan, carbonara or spaghetti with hand-rolled meatballs. Entrees such as chicken Madeira, a Parmesan risotto-based dish with portabello mushrooms, fontina and broccolini, or strip steaks are available. Shareables include veal and truffle ravioli, beef carpaccio, calamari and arancini with a saffron tomato cream sauce as well as a variety of soups and salads.
Wood-fired pizzas round out the menu.
“There’s a lot of passion in Italian food. It’s kind of a love language,” Roach says.
The décor seeks to transport guests with a clean, crisp and fun environment, Roach says. The design features an open layout, with whites, grays and hints of blue. Hand-blown glass light fixtures dangle over the Carrara marble bar tops and throughout the restaurant. The bar now offers 30 seats, with butcher-style block tables in the dining room.
Roach says three additional locations — Asheville, Morrisville and Raleigh — are planned. He isn’t ruling out additional restaurants in Charlotte.
“I think there’s potential for future sites,” he says.
Ratzlaff Construction of Charlotte was the general contractor. RSA out of Cleveland was the architect.