Civetta’s chicken parmesan. Photo courtesy.

Civetta, the latest restaurant from the owners of Vivace, is open for dinner service. Civetta takes over the former Smoke space in the Stonecrest development.

Kevin Jennings, who owns Urban Food Group (owner of Vivace and Civetta) with his wife, Stacey, looked at the space five years ago when Village Tavern closed. The renovations would have been extensive, however, and they decided not to open there. Smoke came in and did a near rebuild of the restaurant space, and after the barbecue restaurant closed, the developers asked Jennings to look at the space again and consider bringing Vivace to south Charlotte. This time, taking over the lease would be less costly.

Instead of Vivace, however, Jennings returned to them with the idea of Civetta—an Italian concept, like they wanted, but different from Vivace.

Civetta’s menu, Jennings says, is more like New York or New Jersey Italian, whereas Vivace’s dishes focus on the style of cooking in northern Italy.

“[It will be} more red sauce focused, a lot more recognizable to the American public dishes, whereas Vivace is significantly more what we would consider to be more dined on in Italy,” he says.

The menu includes the kinds of dishes you’d expect to see at a northeastern hole-in-the-wall Italian spot, like fried calamari, meatballs, baked pasta, chicken parm, and chicken marsala. There are also flatbreads, and a few Vivace-esque dishes mixed in, such as a lobster risotto. Jennings says they’ll also likely add a Tuscan-style steak for two to the menu.

Civetta is currently open for dinner only, but will be adding brunch and lunch soon. Civetta is the ninth restaurant for the group. —Kristen Wile