New Italian restaurant coming to Old Town Bluffton. Here’s a look inside before it opens
One-year-old Joelle DeLeo sat in a stroller rattling a small plastic toy on a recent Thursday morning as activity buzzed around her. She was sitting in the middle of a soon-to-open restaurant that will bear her name in Bluffton.
Joelle, the restaurant, is located at 132 Bluffton Road, Suite 100, in a newly constructed building that also is home to a salon, an architecture firm and other businesses. It’s the result of years of planning and work by two generations of the family, and, if all goes well with a liquor license and town permits, they will be serving patrons from a “modern Italian” menu later this spring.
Robert and Breana DeLeo, the toddler’s parents and the restaurant’s owner, met while working in the hospitality industry in Charleston, later moved to New York, and now live in Bluffton. Robert’s family owns Island Restaurant Equipment on Hilton Head. His father also is one of the partners in the development of the center where the restaurant is located, making it a true family business.
The DeLeos’ vision for the restaurant is light and airy but still cozy. Breana described it as “modern, but not too modern.”
“We’re trying to go very Italian coastal, very neutral tones,” she said.
That Italian coastal theme echoes in the food served there.
Chef Brandon Torre has worked at The Ritz-Carlton, The Omni Hotel, The Westin Hotel and, most recently, Colleton River Club in Bluffton. He is planning a menu that offers wood-fired pizza and Italian fare including fresh, house-made pasta.
The food will be “from-scratch fresh,” Torre said. “You can usually make it better yourself.”
The goal is not to duplicate traditional Italian-American fare but offer more modern, refreshing and lighter takes.
“We want very unique, very chef-forward dishes with the Italian cuisine as the focal point,” Robert DeLeo said.
To the right of the entrance, Joelle’s bar area will seat 18 between at the bar and at three tables there.
The inside dining area will seat around 44 people at tables and booths, while the outside dining area will seat around 50 people. Between them are large sliding doors that can be left open on nicer days.
The restaurant will be open six days a week for lunch and dinner. It will be closed on Tuesdays.
Why Tuesdays? Many restaurants in Bluffton reduce their hours or close altogether on Sundays and Mondays.
“Coming from New York and coming from an Italian family, we always used to go out for Italian dinner on Sundays,” Robert DeLeo explained. “That’s kind of the day to go out for that cuisine. ... Why not try and compete on those two days when not many places are open?”
