Lexington restaurant owner bringing new concept to closed Mellow Mushroom location
A University of Kentucky campus-area restaurant that closed late last year is coming back to life as a new concept, the third from a Lexington horseman and restaurateur.
Carlo Vaccarezza said he plans to open Damiano, featuring pizza and sushi as well as a full bar, in the former Mellow Mushroom location at 503 S. Upper St.
Lexington’s first and last Mellow Mushroom closed at the end of October; owner Ryan Miller said that the restaurant had been going through months of financial losses after the fallout from the COVID pandemic.
UK students would often gather in the funky treehouse atmosphere to watch basketball games and down pizza and beer.
Vaccarezza hopes they will return to the local spot but he won’t have the new restaurant open in time for this season.
“We are very eager to open soon, and have some fun here,” Vaccarezza said. “It will be completely opposite of Frank & Dino’s and La Folie (his other two Lexington restaurants, which are fine dining.)”
Damiano menu
Damiano will be a priced to appeal to the students in the neighborhood “but we’re not going to back from the quality,” he said.
He plans to offer pizza cooked in two kinds of overs: wood-burning and conventional stone pizza oven. The menu also will include inexpensive Italian fare, such as chicken Parmesan and meatball heroes.
“It’s going to be fun, with different kinds of music to fit the concept,” Vaccarezza said. “We are very excited about this new location.”
Vaccarezza said that renovations are expected to take a couple of months but he hopes to open sometime in April, serving lunch and dinner. On weekends, he said, Damiano will stay open late for those in nearby bars and clubs.
And the restaurant will have lots of TVs for watching games and maybe some horse racing.
He’s been sharing the news with loyal customers at his other restaurants and the son of a regular got so excited that he created a logo for Damiano. “He’s William Huffman, a third-grader at Christ the King school, and he just made it on a computer,” Vaccarezza said. “And now I won’t even think of using anything else, it’s so special to me.”
This story was originally published February 28, 2023 at 9:59 AM.
