This highly anticipated restaurant from a James Beard nominee is opening soon in Wilmington

Chef Sunny Gerhart had something specific in mind for his second restaurant. With family heritage rooted in Louisiana, he opened the James Beard nominated St. Roch Fine Oysters & Bar in Raleigh in 2017 with the idea to offer “cliche-free New Orleans cuisine.”

Now, with Olivero, scheduled to open soon at 522 S. Third St. in Wilmington, he’s continuing that goal. While St. Roch is named for the NOLA neighborhood where his parents met, the new eatery is named after his mother’s family, who came to the United States via Spain and Italy.

“I wanted to do something to make my mom proud, not that she isn’t already,” Gerhart said. “This was about styles of food that I love and wanted to learn more about. I wanted to make a bunch of pasta and get better at it and be great at it. I wanted to cook on a wood-fired grill...

“What we do at St. Roch is not what people traditionally think of ‘New Orleans.' They think gumbo, jambalaya, crawfish, etouffee. We try to take some of those flavors, and those influences, and create dishes that make sense to us.”

Gerhart and Lauren Krall Ivey, who is co-executive chef at Olivero, are putting the finishing touches on the space -- with an open kitchen and a massive wood-fired grill in the spotlight and subtle touches that play on the idea of an Italian American restaurant. They also have an opening menu that is (mostly) finalized. Ivey and Gerhart met when they were both working at Ashley Christensen’s Poole’s Diner, and Ivey was most recently the executive chef at another of Christensen’s eateries, the acclaimed Death & Taxes.

Before they open in early September, here’s a look at what you might find on the menu.

Warm dates with nduja

The menu is divided into five categories, Ivey said. They’re purposely not labeled, though. Everything is designed to be shareable.

“That’s the way we like to eat,” she said. “We tend to go somewhere and get one of everything.”

“You can curate the meal however you want it to be that day,” Gerhart said. “If you want a cocktail and a couple little snacks, you can do that. Or if you want a glass of wine and a big bowl of pasta, or if you want a four-course meal."

The first items, though, are especially shareable. These dates stuffed with a spicy, spreadable pork sausage from Calabria are one of Gerhart’s favorites. But you can also find pickled shrimp, croquetas, Dukka spiced nuts, a European twist on beignets with mortadella and fontina fonduta, as well as baguettes layered with anchovy and smoked eggplant.

Salad with beets, grilled peaches and taleggio

While many of the dishes use ingredients inspired by or imported from Europe, there is also a local emphasis.

"We aren't doing this Spain or even New Orleans," he said. "We're in Wilmington and trying to make sense of this here."

Olivero’s fresh salads, and other dishes, keep that perspective. This salad combines Southern fruit, including pickled blackberries, with a semisoft Italian cheese. And there's a lemon-dressed spinach salad topped with Mediterranean chickpea fritters and pecorino. Or the combination of heirloom tomatoes with Italian tonnato sauce, charred green beans and olives. Also, look for dishes like N.C. grilled fish topped with smoked tomato gazpacho and crispy okra. And the bone-in ribeye comes with giardiniera, olives and pickled pepper.

More: Find your perfect shrimp and grits with this guide to Wilmington restaurants

Lasagna with octopus Bolognese

Because pasta was one of Gerhart’s visions for Olivero, the chefs will always have a few styles available including extruded shapes like campanelle and rigatoni and sheet pastas transformed into fettuccine and lasagna.

"Pastas are familiar. It's spaghetti. It's lasagna," Gerhart said. "But it’s not the lasagna you’ll get everywhere. Still, we’re not trying to be interesting for the sake of being interesting, but because it works with the flavors."

In fact, they first tried this octopus Bolognese in another preparation, and first made the lasagna with local crab and sweet corn. It turns out, the dishes worked better when switched. Look for the crab and corn served with long ribbons of mafaldine -- and the lasagna layered with the sauce, chorizo and whipped ricotta.

Rabbit Milanese

"The last restaurant I was at was heavily focused on a wood-fired grill,” Ivey said. She became well-versed in how these flavors and elements can be used in a wide variety of dishes at Death & Taxes. It isn't always the meat that's grilled, like in this dish topped with manchego and a charred broccoli salsa verde.

"The rabbit is breaded and fried, but the broccoli on the grill is made into a sauce," she said. "It's really bright and has some of that flavor.”

“It’s not that everything is going to taste like smoke,” Gerhart said. “We’re looking for balance, something fresh and something charred to layer the flavors.”

The spaghetti, summer squash and burrata is served with a charred romesco, for example. And the melon salad is topped with a grilled cucumber vinaigrette.

Kalimotxo

The Spanish and Italian influence continues to the cocktails and desserts, too, along with the other Olivero themes. Bar manager Robby Dow said they'll combine modern techniques with classic cocktails, sherry, vermouth and Italian amaro.

Look for an eponymous martini, and a version of the kalimotxo, a Spanish red wine and cola cocktail that's fun and approachable. Because the wood-fired grill and smoker is handy, those elements will be in these items, as well. Blueberries are smoked as a topping for the Basque cheesecake. Other sweet options include a local take on a panna cotta with caramel popped corn and a chocolate budino.

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Allison Ballard is the food and dining reporter at the StarNews. You can reach her at aballard@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Olivero restaurant is set to open in downtown Wilmington