{"id":19205,"date":"2019-10-09T15:59:47","date_gmt":"2019-10-09T21:59:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skyhinews.com\/?p=60725"},"modified":"2019-10-09T15:59:47","modified_gmt":"2019-10-09T21:59:47","slug":"ciao-monte-to-open-at-former-location-of-leos-kitchen-in-winter-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/local-news\/ciao-monte-to-open-at-former-location-of-leos-kitchen-in-winter-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Ciao Monte to open at former location of Leo\u2019s Kitchen in Winter Park"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Ciao Monte, located in Cooper Creek, plans to host a soft opening at the end of October.<\/strong>
McKenna Harford \/ mharford@skyhinews.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Ciao Monte, a new Italian-American fusion restaurant, is saying hello to the mountains of Winter Park.<\/p>\n

The restaurant will fill a vacancy at Cooper Creek left by Leo\u2019s Kitchen vacating the space earlier this year<\/a>, and the new owners hope to open as early as the end of October. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re planning a soft opening at the end of this month,\u201d said Chef Hari Karki, who\u2019s part of the ownership team. \u201cThen we\u2019ll have a grand opening probably in November.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ciao Monte is an extension of a Cooper Creek classic, the Indian and Nepalese restaurant Durbar. Karki, food and beverage manager Dev Pokharel and the owners of Durbar have partnered to open Ciao Monte.<\/p>\n

Karki said they want the two restaurants to remain unique, so they settled on Italian because of their knowledge of and experience with the cuisine. Karki, who received his culinary arts degree from the University of Charleston, said cooking Italian dishes is what he\u2019s most comfortable with.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefinitely, we wanted to do something different and I have a background with the food,\u201d he said. \u201cThis was perfect for us so that\u2019s why we\u2019re expanding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ciao Monte\u2019s lunch and dinner menus feature classic Italian staples, such as lasagna, pizza and antipasti, as well as American comfort food, including wings, burgers and steaks. The restaurant will also offer an extensive wine list, specialty cocktails and beer. <\/p>\n

When it comes to the dishes, Karki said they have taken great care to create unique and delicious options utilizing local and imported ingredients, such as bison and burrata cheese, depending on the plate. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re serving more authentic Italian food and then some American comfort food,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Despite plating high quality dishes, the restaurant will be casual and welcoming, Karki said. Ciao Monte\u2019s atmosphere hopes to highlight the best of the mountains and the best of Italian cuisine.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the owners want to build a reputation at Ciao Monte\u2019s as one of the best options for lunch and dinner in town, thus ensuring a stable, year-round business. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe see the opportunity here,\u201d he said. \u201cI want to focus on the locals. \u2026 As much as we can, we want to help the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ciao Monte expects to host a soft opening toward the end of October and will announce a grand opening date on their social media pages.<\/p>\n

via:: Sky-Hi News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ciao Monte, located in Cooper Creek, plans to host a soft opening at the end of October.McKenna Harford \/ mharford@skyhinews.com Ciao Monte, a new Italian-American fusion restaurant, is saying hello to the mountains of Winter Park. The restaurant will fill a vacancy at Cooper Creek left by Leo\u2019s Kitchen vacating the space earlier this year, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-19205","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-14 21:59:20","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KRKY Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19205\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}