Big Plans in Store for Angelina’s Kitchen in Woodbury

A patio. Additional seating. Expanded menu options. A wine bar.

is gearing up for a lot of changes.

Plans call for to essentially move into the consignment store space next door to Angelina’s Kitchen in Woodbury's Eagle Valley Marketplace, owner Angela Verrastro said. An archway will be built between Angelina's Kitchen and the new dining area, which, at 1,500 square feet, will be bigger than the current café space.

The newly expanded business will be called Angelina’s Kitchen Italian Bistro and Catering. The move will begin Sunday, July 1, and Angelina’s Kitchen is set to reopen on July 6. (The café will close.)

In the near term, there will be limited seating at Angelina’s Kitchen, but the new space will eventually open the door for everything to be housed under one roof.

“We’ll be able to do a lot more with the menu,” Verrastro said, noting that certain specials aren’t available as often simply because of the constraints on the kitchen at Angelina’s Café.

She’s also looking at securing a liquor license to sell beer and wine next spring, and the new space could feature a party room in the future. A patio is also planned at Angelina's Kitchen.

There will be no drive-thru at Angelina's Kitchen, but Verrastro said employees would deliver food or coffee out to customers in two spaces reserved for takeout.

The hours at Angelina’s Kitchen will be 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week, and will likely expand once wine and beer are offered.

In February, Angelina’s Café held a special sit-down dinner—its busiest night since it opened.

“But we just about killed ourselves in the kitchen,” Verrastro said.

It became clear that the bistro needed to grow. And that has been a theme for Verrastro since she started cooking meals at her home and delivering them to friends—the precursor to Angelina’s Kitchen, which opened in July 2006.

She opened the café in March 2011 after she stopped selling her goods wholesale.

“That was not where my heart was,” Verrastro said. “It sounds corny, but I want to know my customers. I want to know the people eating my food.”

Angelina’s Café has become a gathering place for neighbors, Verrastro said, and that will continue at the new space.

“I think we’ve got something pretty cool here,” she said. “Not just because of what we’re doing, but because we have cool customers.”

Verrastro grew up in an Italian-Jewish household, and some of her fondest memories are of being with family and friends around the table of her grandmother, Angelina.

“It has always been all about the food,” she said. “Food is love.”

After a stint as an insurance underwriter and a dozen years taking care of her children, Verrastro lived for a year in Brussels after her husband was transferred. While in Europe she was inspired by the fresh foods, marketplace shopping and home cooking.

“Why don’t we eat like that anymore in the States?” Verrastro said.

For more information check out the new website and the Angelina’s Kitchen Facebook page.

Note: is moving one door down.

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