New Italian Restaurant to Bring Pizza, Pasta and Italian Cocktails to Downtown Dallas

A Dallas restaurant industry veteran and her husband, a Neapolitan chef, are opening an Italian restaurant in downtown Dallas this fall.

Partenope Ristorante, created by Dino and Megan Santonicola, will open on the first floor of the Titche-Goettinger building at 1900 Main. The 4,000-square-foot restaurant, serving lunch and dinner, will seat 100 in the dining room with 12 seats at the bar.

Partenope "aims to offer a dining experience with the utmost respect for cooking traditions and ingredients," according to a press release.

“Naples has its own style of cuisine with a focus on quality products and simplicity in its dishes,” Dino said in the release.

The menu includes dishes ranging from "traditional street food such as Pizza Fritta, fried pizza stuffed with daily toppings" to pastas like Timbaletto Di Melanzane, eggplant filled with bucatini and Braciole di Carne, a slow-braised beef that's rolled and filled with pecorino, prosciutto, pine nuts and provolone.

And of course, there will be pizza. Dino designed the hand-painted Italian tile oven that will be imported from Stefano Ferrara in Naples, Italy, and it will be the centerpiece of the open kitchen. "Dino is part of a select group that hold the prestigious title of Fiduciary of Associazone Verace Pizza Neapolatana and won the gold medal at the AVPN Olympics in Naples, Italy, for his Pizza Fritta," according to the release. Partenope will serve several styles of pizza, including pizza fritta, focaccia napolitana and Neapolitan.

The wine list will focus on Italian varietals with an emphasis on wines from Southern Italy, and cocktails will have an emphasis on "aperitivi, along with Partenope’s twists on classic drinks," according to the release.

Megan Santonicola, a longtime restaurant operations director, has been involved in Dallas concepts like Dragonfly, Hibiscus, The Green Room and Cane Rosso. Dino Santonicola was born and raised in Naples, where he started working in restaurants at age 13. He moved to Dallas in 2011 and met Megan at the restaurant where they both worked. According to the release, "they fell in love and married in 2015 in Naples under the watchful eye of the city’s namesake and beautiful siren, Partenope — hence the restaurant’s name."