Divino Wine and Dine, the Italian restaurant and pizzeria at 2315 N. Murray Ave., has been sold and the restaurant will close at the end of service on Jan. 31, according to owners Dean Cannestra and Tina Conley.
The restaurant opened in December 2012, replacing Palermo Villa, which Cannestra managed with his sister Kathy Mirenda, who owned the restaurant.
Palermo Villa had closed the previous July. Cannestra and Conley redecorated the restaurant but kept the menu – and thankfully, the pizza – mostly the same.
"The new owners (Peter Dietrich and Derek Nackers) will also be operating an Italian restaurant," Cannestra told me Sunday. "Their plan is to keep pizza on the menu, but they will be adding their own flair to the dinner menu, under a new name.
"This will be their first venture. They both have long resumes from the industry. It will continue as Italian cuisine, but a different style than ours. However, they will continue to serve the Palermo Villa pizza."
Palermo Villa was opened by the Falluca family, which now owns Palermo's Pizza, in 1970. Mirenda bought it in 1978.
Cannestra also owned Nessun Dorma in Riverwest, but sold it two years ago.
Stay tuned for more information on this East Side change.
In the meantime, I’m going to get over there to eat as much as possible of one my top Milwaukee pizzas before the changeover.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
