A NEW MODERN AMERICAN ITALIAN RESTAURANT AND ROOFTOP BAR ARE OPENING IN EAST AUSTIN
A new modern American Italian restaurant and bar is opening in East Austin, taking over the former EastSide Tavern space, this spring. Casa Bianca (the restaurant) and Bar Alcina (the rooftop bar) will open at 1510 East Cesar Chavez Street starting on Friday, April 12.
Casa Bianca’s menu is modern American Italian with a raw bar, handmade pasta, seafood, and vegetables from co-owner and executive chef Joseph Zoccoli For the drinks, the website describes cocktails as “weirdo-Italian,” which co-owner and beverage director Richard Thomas characterizes as the team playing around with classic Italian cocktails, like negronis and martinis. Elsewhere, there will amari and vermouth as well, plus a wine list emphasizing natural ones.
The rooftop Bar Alcina will function as a casual space with a smaller food menu along with frozen drinks, tapped wine, and draft cocktails.
Zoccoli had an all-together nine-year career at various restaurants that are part of the Uchi restaurant group (aka Hai). He started at Uchi and had stints at its Houston, Dallas, and Denver locations and its offshoots Uchiko, the now-closed St. Philip, and Top Knot. Most recently, he was the chef de cuisine of Japanese restaurant Uchi. He had run his food pop-up, Che Cazzo, from fall 2020 into early winter 2023.
Thomas grew up in Corpus Christ and eventually worked at New York bars like NOLA-ish bar Heavy Woods. When he moved back to Austin, he opened draft cocktail service Cantaloupe Island Cocktails in 2021. He was also the opening beverage director for the seafood restaurant Bill’s Oyster.
The building — which was built for EastSide Tavern — includes an indoor dine-in room, patio, and rooftop bar. The renovations by Magic Architecture are leaning into what the press release describes as “modern Texan with art deco” vibes.
Barbecue-American-ish restaurant and bar EastSide Tavern opened in 2016 and closed without notice in December 2023. Other nearby Italian-slash-pasta restaurants along East Cesar Chavez include Bufalina, Juniper, and Intero, and there’s Il Brutto on East Sixth Street.
Casa Bianca’s opening day will be a limited-service one, per its website. Its hours will start at 4 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday, with no closing time indicated.