New Italian restaurant Spring and Porter opens in former Villa location

PETOSKEY — After more than 40 years in business, Petoskey’s well-loved Italian restaurant, Villa Ristorante Italiano, closed. Carrying on the legacy of Villa owner Alex Czinki after his retirement, the new owners of 1500 Spring St. have opened Spring and Porter.

Named for its location at the intersection of Spring Street and Porter Street, Spring and Porter will stick with the Italian style food under the guidance of co-owner and executive chef Tommy Kaszubowski.

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“It's big shoes to fill. But this is something I personally have always wanted to do, it was my goal,” Kaszubowski said. “I wanted something that was already a staple thing in the community. The Villa has always been here, I want to continue that tradition on and go another 40 years here with the next restaurant.”

Kaszubowski’s co-owner and wife Alyssa Harrold helps run the business operations while co-owners and married couple Shawn Osborne and Shaun Cordes-Osborne work behind the scenes on the business’ financial and legal needs.

“It was a beautiful space and people have a lot of memories coming to the Villa for the last 40 years and Alex worked every day here very hard,” Harrold said. “I think Tommy is very similar to him in that aspect. He wanted it taken over by someone who wasn't going to be a corporation, but actually a chef in the kitchen.”

Osborne and Cordes-Osborne were friends with Kaszubowski and Harrold before becoming business partners. They were also food-lovers and fans of Kaszubowski’s cooking.

“We've eaten all over the place and Tommy is still one of the best chefs to us. So when Tommy had expressed several times that he's always wanted his own restaurant (and) when this opportunity came up, we were excited to partner with him,” Cordes-Osborne said.

“He definitely knows all the stuff that he needs to know to cook and make a restaurant great and we just happen to have the backend experience to be able to do payroll and finance and legal and all that piece of it.”

Osborne and Cordes-Osborne also had a personal connection with the Villa. After their first child was born, she spent 30 days in the newborn intensive care unit. On the last night of her stay, the nurses encouraged the couple to go out to dinner before their lives changed forever. Not wanting to be too far from McLaren Hospital where their daughter Brooke, now 12, was staying, they chose to eat at the Villa.

“We actually came to the Villa and talked about how our life was going to change and how it was going to be a different path for us now that we had kids,” Cordes-Osborne said. “Having kids was a big change and now, being part of something that we've never done before in a partnership with people like this is a new change. So it's like the Villa has been a turn in our road at both times.”

The group of four became interested in the business back in March when they heard it would be going up for sale. It never hit the market.

After a thorough vetting process, where Kaszubowski and Czinki spent time getting to know each other and learning the ins and outs of the Villa, the group officially took ownership on June 22 and opened 10 days later on July 5.

The interior of the restaurant is fairly similar to the Villa but with fewer things on the walls, fresh paint and some new decor.

One aspect of the Villa that has carried over into Spring and Porter is wine. Czinki’s climate controlled wine cellar and Italian wine collection came with the business, including wines that are no longer available in Italy or elsewhere.

Over the bar is the extensive number of empty grappa bottles that Czinki had displayed in the Villa.

“People were like ‘Do not get rid of the grappa bars,’ so we kept as much. There's a grappa bar sign up still,” Harrold said.

Grappa is an Italian brandy, made from grape seeds, stalks and stems leftover from the wine-making process and is an after-dinner drink meant to help digestion.

Since opening, Spring and Porter has been warmly welcomed into the Petoskey community by new customers and returning Villa customers.

“Everywhere I go everyone's talking to me about it,” Kaszubowski said. “So it's been very well received. Lots of compliments, lots of happy people and we’re just going to keep that rolling.”

Contact reporter Tess Ware at tware@petoskeynews.com. Follow her on Twitter, @Tess_Petoskey 

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Spring and Porter Italian restaurant opens in Petoskey