GLOUCESTER – Jack Bertuglia is getting back to what he knows best in an area he knows quite well. He’s opening Fiorello’s Italian restaurant in the White Marsh Shopping Center, taking over the space previously occupied by the Wild Horse Country Café and Malt Shoppe.
“It’s a very good spot,” said Bertuglia, a third-generation restaurant owner.
He’s quite familiar with the Middle Peninsula. He owned Pelican Cove in Mathews about 15 years ago, operated Fiorello’s out of the Holiday Inn Newport News in 2014-2015, and Baci in Hampton in 2015-2016.
“I like it,” he said of Gloucester County. “I had a lot of customers coming from Gloucester when I was in Mathews. When I was in Newport News … I had a lot of people come over from Gloucester because they knew me from Mathews.”
It’s been a few years since he has been an owner. Not too long after his establishment in Hampton closed, he became the manager of Fat Tuna Grill & Oyster House in Williamsburg. He thought the time was right to become an owner, again, and this time, he’s doing it with his two stepsons.
“This is a completely new business,” Bertuglia said.
The plan is to open the restaurant, which will feature Southern Italy cuisine, in February or March of next year.
“I want to be prepared one hundred percent,” he said.
There still is some work to be done on the 2,444-foot square space. Not all of the operational details have been worked out, either, but Fiorello’s will be open for lunch and dinner, probably six days a week. It likely will be closed Mondays.
Fiorello’s Italian restaurant will be located at 4938 George Washington Memorial Highway in Hayes.
The Wild Horse Café, which had been in business for six years, closed over the summer.
