Joe Benny’s owner will open a new Little Italy restaurant

When Joseph “Joe Benny” Gardella said a tearful farewell to his 9-year-old Little Italy restaurant, Joe Benny’s, last spring, he also hinted the goodbye wouldn’t be for good.

“I’ll be back with a vengeance,” he promised fans of the eatery’s Sicilian-style focaccia pizza and generously sized meatballs in a video posted online. “You can’t keep someone like me down.”

Now the meatball’s out of the bag: “Joe Benny” is making a comeback.

Gardella will return to the Little Italy neighborhood this summer with Benny’s, a new restaurant taking the place of the shuttered Germano’s Piattini at 300 S. High St.

The dining spot will be “Joe Benny’s all grown up,” he said Thursday morning, after a liquor license transfer for Benny’s was approved. “We’re going to keep some of the basics, but we’re also going to try to get some fresh stuff, some fresh pasta. Same attitude, just grown up a little bit.”

He’s partnering with Ben Sudano, the CEO of Sudano’s Produce, as well as Sudano’s son, Joshua McLaughlin. The Sudano family purchased the old Germano’s building for $650,000 last year, according to state property records.

Sudano, a longtime Little Italy resident, said he wanted to invest in the neighborhood where he was raised. Little Italy has lost several staple restaurants in the past five years, including Da Mimmo, Aldo’s Ristorante Italiano and Germano’s Piattini.

Sudano also bought the Aldo’s building , which he has since transformed into an event space called Sudano’s.

“I want to bring Little Italy back,” he said, “and I want everybody to benefit.”

With two floors and outdoor seating, Benny’s will be much larger than the compact Joe Benny’s dining room on High Street. Gardella said some of the old restaurant’s favorites will be on the menu at the new one: “The meatballs are going to be there for sure,” he said, and “we’ll have an ode to the focaccia.”

The new spot will also carry on some of the flair of the long-running cabaret at Germano’s. Sudano said there are plans for jazz performances and other live music at Benny’s, which is slated to open in about two months.

The restaurant’s interior has been redone with decor that’s “brighter” and “a little more upbeat,” Sudano said.

Gardella, who closed Joe Benny’s in part to care for his health, said he is feeling better and ready for his comeback.

“This has been one of the most miserable stretches of my life,” he said of his time away from the restaurant business.

He’s looking forward to seeing old customers, who swarmed Joe Benny’s in its final days, sending lines out the door.

“I built a bond with those people,” Gardella said.