After expanding their Tacos & Tequila Cantina to three locations with more on the way, Aldo and Kelly Musico are growing their other local restaurant brand.
Aldos Italian Table & Bar opened Nov. 22 in University Village adjacent to Florida Gulf Coast University. The new Aldos moved into the large restaurant space that was formerly home to KC American Bistro, which permanently shuttered its Lee County location last year because of the pandemic.
Aldos’ new dinner restaurant is directly across University Village from the third location of Tacos & Tequila, which the Musicos launched in 2018. Aldos’ debut location opened in 2002 in an East Naples industrial park on Mercantile Avenue before it relocated to Kings Lake Square on Davis Boulevard. Their first Tacos & Tequila also opened about a decade later in that same East Naples retail center.
At 4,500 square feet, the new Aldos is nearly 30% larger than the Collier County version. The new restaurant seats more than 200 and features dining on a large patio.
“It’s very different. It’s light and airy,” says Kelly Musico.“I think that’s going to be different for people but people are going to really like it.”
The Aldos locations have other differences too. While the original serves New York-style pizza, the new Aldos imported a brick pizza oven from Italy to create traditional 12-inch Italian-style pizzas in just 90 seconds. The oven is a focal point in the new restaurant and the new pizza chef, Giuseppe Manco, is a two-time world master from Naples, Italy, where Aldo Musico also is from.
High-quality steaks also have been added to the menu alongside the signature parmigiana, piccata and marsala pasta dishes. “We’ve hired this fantastic chef that we’ve known for years from New York and he has some fabulous pasta dishes,” says Musico, especially bragging about Chef Anthony Russo’s pasta recipes. “They are so creative and so delicious,” she says. “It’s not your typical Italian. It has a fun twist on Italian.”
A New York native, Russo is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America and honed his skills while working for top chefs such as David Burke and Sam Hazen. He took that knowledge and became executive chef for nearly a decade at Lugo Cucina Italiano across from Madison Square Garden. Russo brings his take on Italian-American cuisine to Southwest Florida.
The new restaurant at 19810 Village Center Drive in Estero also plans happy hour specials at a large bar area. The opening hours for Aldos are 4 to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.
Next up, the Musicos are shooting to open their fourth Tacos & Tequila in January in The Pointe at Founders Square on the southwest corner of Immokalee Road and Collier Boulevard in North Naples. They also have tentative plans for a smaller Aldos restaurant nearby in The Plaza at Founders Square later in 2022. “We are going full force ahead now,” Musico says.
