Bruno returns to downtown with new restaurant

Date: 9/22/2010

Sept. 22, 2010

By G. Michael Dobbs

Managing Editor

SPRINGFIELD -- A familiar figure in the city's fine dining scene has returned with a restaurant with a name that may cause some controversy, although Victor Bruno doesn't think so.

Bruno opened Adolfo's Ristorante last week in the same location on Worthington Street as his highly popular eatery Caffeine's. The restaurant is named for his father, Adolfo "Al" Bruno, an organized crime figure who was murdered in 2003.

Bruno said at a media preview the day before his Sept. 16th grand opening he was "not worried" about his choice of the name.

"Anyone who knew my father, knew him as a great guy," he said. "I'm proud of my dad."

"My father had a huge influence on my life. He taught me about old school values and family traditions. Life is about family. It's about good times, good food, wine, friends, movies and conversations," he added.

Caffeine's and the younger Bruno's other restaurant, Art e Pasta, helped spur the birth of the city's entertainment district in the mid-1990s. Both of the restaurants eventually closed.

Bruno said that he had been thinking about opening a new restaurant as soon as his last tenant, Izzo's, closed. Before Izzo's opened, the owners of Pazzo's at the Basketball Hall of Fame had rented the space for another restaurant, which they eventually decided not to open.

Bruno started from scratch with the decor and design of the space and did the interior design himself. In the front of the restaurant is a bar and the rear has a dining room that can accommodate 60 to 65 people.

The restaurant has created 30 new jobs, Bruno said.

There are flat television screens mounted on the walls with vintage films playing on them, a touch Bruno saw at another restaurant and liked.

Bruno reunited with his former Art e Pasta chef, Joseph Conroy and some of the dishes featured at Art e Pasta have been carried over to the new menu.

Some of the house specialties featured on the menu include lobster risotto, Adolfo's wild mushroom risotto and marsala in chicken, beef and veal. Bruno admitted the brocoli rabe and sausage was a particular favorite.

The restaurant will be open Monday through Saturday from 4 to 11:30 p.m. and the bar will be open until 2 a.m.

Throughout a sampling of the menu for the media, Bruno noted how his father taught him about the necessity of using the finest and freshest ingredients to create the best effect.

Noting the perceptions about downtown had changed in his absence, Bruno will offer valet parking six days a week. He said he would like to work with the Business Improvement District (BID) officials as well as law enforcement to develop solutions to address issues.

He said he would like to see people who cause problems in the area to perform community service.

"Instead of the BID cleaning the streets, make them sweep the streets," he said.

For more information, go to www.adolfosrestaurant.com.