Jon and Amy Fortes, owners of The Flipside Café in Fort Mill and Flipside Restaurant in Rock Hill, are opening another restaurant. Their next eatery will be an Italian spot called Salmeri’s, named for Amy’s mother’s maiden name. The Fortes hope to be open for business in late February.

The restaurant, inspired by Amy’s Italian heritage, is in Mercantile Plaza, a shopping center anchored by a Harris Teeter off Route 21 in Fort Mill. Jon Fortes will shift from Flipside Restaurant to focus his efforts on the new restaurant, with Amy managing the front of house at Salmeri’s (as well the other restaurants) and back of the house at Flipside Café.

The menu at Salmeri’s will focus on casual Italian dishes, including standards like calamari and pizzas as well as more adventurous dishes. The menu’s pasta and entrée options are signature Fortes, with local ingredients and bold flavors, such as a Cajun shrimp and lemon pepper linguine and a roasted pork loin roulade with sweet potato purée, Castelvetrano olives, and a balsamic demi glaze. Many of the pastas will be made in house, and the ones that aren’t will be sourced from Pasta & Provisions.

This restaurant will be the largest in the Flipside family. Salmeri’s will be open daily for lunch and dinner, with zeppole and doughnut brunch service on the weekends.

“When we started looking at what was needed in Fort Mill, it seemed middle-of-the-road Italian is what is needed right now,” Jon Fortes says.

Fortes says he and Amy have been looking to expand for a while now, but hadn’t found the right space until this one. They’ll only need to make cosmetic changes to the space, which is being given to them as a restaurant shell. When asked if they were planning to expand to Charlotte proper, Fortes said they’ve considered it, but found the market to be overcrowded and expensive — and not quite in line with their style.

“We’ve always had that small-town, family feel — you’re family when you come into the Flipside, and we want that same kind of feeling when we open at that location,” he says. “I don’t always get that when I go to big restaurants in Charlotte.”

The couple is also currently expanding The Flipside Restaurant, taking over the space next door to add a private dining area that can seat nearly 50 guests. The Flipside Restaurant is the couple’s second restaurant, and serves their take on Southern cuisine. They opened their first restaurant, The Flipside Café, in 2013, with Amy’s father as their sole investor — and he wanted them to open an Italian restaurant. —Kristen Wile

 

 

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