The team behind San Diego's expanding Puesto Mexican Artisan Kitchen & Bar has taken over the central La Jolla space that long housed Whisknladle to open Marisi Italiano, a scratch-made Italian restaurant helmed by the chef that launched Cesarina in Point Loma.
San Diegans Eric and Alan Adler, along with their cousin Isi Lombrozo, launched the first Puesto Mexican Artisan Kitchen & Bar on Wall Street in La Jolla in 2012. The restaurant now has seven locations, including a 9,000-square-foot bar & eatery that opened in Silicon Valley in 2018, a San Diego location sited at The Headquarters at Seaport Village and a huge 10,000 square-foot brewery and restaurant that opened at the former Gordon Biersch in Mission Valley this past July. The Adlers recently took over the space near their original Puesto location in La Jolla that housed Whisknladle for 12 years before the restaurant closed this past March.
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| Chef Patrick Money |
The Adlers will soon began converting the former Whisknladle unit to become Marisi Italiano. An ambigram of their grandparents names, Isidoro and Marila, Marisi Italiano will have a menu designed by Chef Patrick Money, who hails from Northern Italy and helped launch the popular Cesarina Italian Trattoria in Point Loma last year. An ambitious young chef, Patrick procured nine years of experience working for a variety of family-owned restaurants in Northern Italy before graduating from culinary school in 2008. Soon after, he moved to the United States to refine his skills through a number of pastry and sous chef positions. Between nine years spent in Florida and Georgia, Patrick worked at a mix of fine dining and full-service Italian restaurants as well as a high-end catering company. In 2017, attracted to the abundance that the Southern California region offered, Patrick moved to San Diego. He spent the next 15 months working with Urban Kitchen Group’s California-Italian staple, CUCINA entoteca in Del Mar, before moving to the position of head line cook at North Park’s neighborhood institution, The Smoking Goat.
The menu for Marisi Italiano is still very much in development but will be centered around housemade fresh pasta and scratch made Italian entrees. The eatery will also have a full bar with craft cocktails, beer, and wine. The restaurant will likely be designed by San Diego's BASILE Studio (Morning Glory, Born & Raised). Marisi Italiano is expected to open in early-to-mid 2021.
