By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — A mother-and-daughter team is preparing to open a new high-energy neighborhood restaurant centered around innovative approaches to classic cuisine and cocktails.
Angela and Ava Vitale plan to open Crave kitchen and cocktails this summer after remodeling the former Camera Craft space at 3801 N. Perryville Road. Work is underway now.
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The duo aims to provide high-quality fine dining at an affordable price. Crave will offer a fusion of multiple cuisines with Italian, Mexican, Asian and American influence. They will also integrate family recipes with everything from light fares to comfort food.
“We’re going to have some really cool innovative dishes. We don’t want to push envelope too far, but we do want to push it just a little bit,” said Angela Vitale, the restaurant’s owner. “Rockford wants something inventive but affordable. That’s definitely where our focus is.”
Ava Vitale, the general manager, will curate the restaurant’s cocktail program. She plans to create a playful menu for people willing to step outside of the box to try something new, while also offering classics such as an old fashioned or Fitzgerald, smoked cocktails and other drinks.
“My biggest goal for the cocktail program is that it is both approachable and imaginative,” Ava Vitale said. “It’s been really fun recipe testing and doing a bunch of research to find what fun, inventive but also approachable drinks to put on the menu.”
It will also have what the Vitales say is Rockford’s first 90-point wine list, a designation given to highly rated wines. They said there are plenty of affordable wines that rate 90 points or higher.
A horseshoe bar with a quartz countertop will flank the east side of the restaurant while the dining room fills the other side of the 3,700-square-foot space. There is seating for about 100. There will also be outdoor dog-friendly patio seating in warmer weather months.
Ava Vitale, a former Division I volleyball player at Northern Iowa University, practically grew up in the restaurant industry. At a young age she ran the halls of Cliffbreakers when it was run by her father, Jimmy Vitale.
“Even at that age I remember being little and just wondering, ‘how does this work?'” Ava Vitale said. “Just being completely enamored with the space and the idea of running a business like that.”
She later worked with him at Stone Eagle Tavern, which Jimmy Vitale ran for 15 years before closing it in early February after learning the building was to be sold for a future Raising Cane’s.
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Angela and Jimmy Vitale were married for about 20 years and remain good friends. He’s helped as a consultant and advisor as Angela and Ava Vitale open their first restaurant. Now, the mother-daughter team looks forward to their new venture together.
“I not only get to work with my daughter but my best friend, too,” Angela Vitale said. “I’m really excited to take on this journey with her.”
Ava Vitale, who previously interned for the nonprofit Global Connections for Women Foundation, was bartending in Cedar Falls when her mother reached out about a year ago to ask if she would help create the restaurant.
“She’s really been a role model for me in the way that she conducts herself and the woman who she is,” Ava Vitale said.
Although mothers and daughters can, at times, butt heads “at the end of the day I think what it all boils down to is I’m a little bit of a mini her, at least I’m trying to be, so any stuff like that can get resolved pretty quickly because of the amount of love and respect I have for her,” Ava Vitale said.
The contemporary style dining room will have bright white table tops with rich leather chairs and cozy booths in a space with high ceilings and large windows. The restaurant’s color palette includes a range of navy, white and black with emerald green water glasses. There will also be custom artwork on the walls and chandeliers.
The goal is to create a hip but humble vibe with a warm and open atmosphere.
“We want a really fun, easy-going vibe in here,” Angela Vitale said. “We really want to fill what I thought was a small gap in the market for another fine-dining place that has a really great, fun, high-energy, beautiful atmosphere.”
Follow | Crave kitchen & cocktails
Where: 3801 N. Perryville Road, Rockford
Facebook: @crave.rockford
Instagram: @crave.rockford
Website: craverockford.com
Contact: info@craverockford.com
This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on X at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas and Threads @thekevinhaas