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The stage is set for the opening of Amore Mio, a new Italian restaurant in downtown Aurora.
At the City Council meeting Tuesday, aldermen approved creating a Class D downtown core on-site consumption liquor license for the restaurant at 31-33 W. New York St.
Roberto Avila and Erika Villanueva, the restaurant’s developers and owners, have been redeveloping the former Gillerson’s Grubbery building into Amore Mio, an Italian restaurant and piano bar paying homage to the Italian American restaurants of mid-20th century New York City.
As of Friday, the restaurant had not opened. Signs in the windows declare the restaurant is “coming soon.”
Avila and Villanueva own four other restaurants in the area, including the Latin-fusion Altiro Restaurant on the first floor of Leland Tower Apartments at Galena Boulevard and Stolp Avenue downtown.
The City Council recently approved a $200,000 payment to help open the new Amore Mio restaurant.
The redevelopment deal had the city make the $200,000 payment to the venture on top of a $75,000 finish line grant the city already awarded in 2022 for the project.
The restaurant owners put in $53,000 of equity, and took out a personally guaranteed $222,000 economic development loan as part of the project.
The entire project is $550,000.
The up-front money allowed the restaurant owners to finish the rebuild of two floors of the older building, including a basement space that hasn’t been used in roughly 50 years.
The first floor of the restaurant will be a dining room, and the basement space will be for dining and have a lounge that will feature live music, including a piano bar, Avila has said.
The restaurant is considered another draw for patrons of the Paramount Theatre downtown, but Avila has said the restaurant would operate independently of the Paramount’s hours because it would be open for lunch and dinner Wednesday through Sunday, and will also have a late-night menu.
Avila has said he sees the restaurant, added to other restaurants downtown including his own Altiro, as creating its own identity to attract people downtown, independently of theatrical offerings.
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