Dining Notes

SQUIRREL TO MULTIPLY

M.J. Zaremba, owner of the Chatty Squirrel Cafe & Bakery, plans to open an Omaha location of her La Vista original this spring.

Zaremba said she has secured a lease at 12323 West Center Road, the former home of Off Center Deli, and hopes to open her second Chatty Squirrel there in April.

Though the space is smaller, the concept will feature the same coffee and house-baked breakfast items in the morning and sandwiches with house-baked breads, healthy sides and from-scratch soups for lunch. Zaremba said she is contemplating some dinner hours at the West Center location.

“For now it is a second location,” she said. “We’re going to try our best to keep the other one open.”

Zaremba opened the first Chatty Squirrel in March 2008. And, though she had long shared the kitchen with chef Barb Dickhute, she is again cooking solo.

Dickhute left in December and soon will join the staff at Finicky Frank’s in Florence.

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BIANCO TO REOPEN AS ZURLO'S

Diners-turned-owners and a returning chef are turning Bianco Ristorante Italiano into Zurlo’s Bistro Italiano.

Omahan Lori Stangl said she and her husband purchased Bianco, which closed Jan. 24, and hope to reopen it for lunch and dinner Mondays through Saturdays by late March.

Stangl said the restaurant near 132nd Street and West Maple Road is named for its chef and general manager Enzo Zurlo, a New York native with Italian roots who was the opening general manager at Bianco and its chef for about two years.

Zurlo, who also worked briefly at the Stokes Grill & Bar in the Old Market, said the Zurlo’s menu will retain the Bianco emphasis on northern and central Italian cooking, but the dishes will be almost entirely new.

“We’ll still have brick-oven pizza and homemade pastas,” he said. “But there’s a whole ’nother array of entrees (like porcini-encrusted scallops with spinach and roasted red potatoes), fresh fish and very seasonal produce.”

The look of the restaurant will change a bit, too. The signature Vespa, Stangl said, no longer fits with the color scheme. Said Zurlo: “The orange is gone. It’s gonna be green.”

Zurlo’s is the first restaurant venture for Stangl and her husband, Steve, a longtime executive at West Corp. She said they had frequented Bianco ever since it opened in late 2006.

“Bianco’s became our little place,” she said. “When this opportunity came along, we thought well, let’s go for it.”

The restaurant retains the Bianco phone number, 884-9500.

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TEA SMITH SCALES BACK

The Tea Smith is closing its Shops of Legacy location and consolidating its operations with that of the Tea Smith in Tower Plaza, near 78th and Dodge Streets, on Monday.

“The tough economic times have taken their toll on many of our customers and on The Tea Smith,” owner Tim Smith said in an e-mail explaining the changes to customers this week. The shop, which sells custom blends of loose-leaf teas as well as hot and cold tea drinks, opened in Legacy in late 2004.

CLOSED

370 Grill, opened last summer at 11335 S. 96th St. in Papillion, has closed.

A Sarpy County Sheriff Office notice on the door this week and Sarpy County District Court records indicate 370 Grill founder Brian Hadrick and owner Twin H LLC were ordered to vacate the premises on Feb. 4 as restitution to the property owner, Walnut Creek LLC.

In court documents, Walnut Creek argued and a judge agreed that Hadrick and Twin H failed to repay $50,000 Walnut Creek loaned them for improvements to the venue. Hadrick could not be reached. Paul LaPuzza, an attorney representing the majority owner in Twin H, said Thursday that Hadrick sold the majority of his shares in the limited liability company last year and that the new majority owner and manager, Ben Spanjer, was unaware of the loan arrangement with Walnut Creek.

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CULINARY SHOWCASE

Want to see some budding local culinary talent? Want to check out the new culinary building at Metropolitan Community College?

You can do both at Metro’s fifth annual high school culinary invitational Monday and Tuesday. It’s being held, for the first time, in the new Institute for the Culinary Arts building at Metro’s Fort Omaha campus, near 30th and Fort Streets.

Culinary students from 19 area high schools are participating this year. And the two-day event is free and open to the public.

The culinary skills competition, which involves three-course meals prepared in 60 minutes, runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday. The management competition runs from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Tuesday. And a “Jeopardy”-style hospitality trivia contest runs from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday, followed by the awards ceremony at 5 p.m.

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TASTY EVENTS

What does science have to do with what’s in your glass? Find out from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday at Slowdown, when the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s Science Cafe presents “The Science of Beer.” Local brewing guru Zac Triemert, co-president of Lucky Bucket Brewing Co. and Sòlas Distillery in La Vista, will discuss the science behind brewing and distilling. The event, part of an ongoing series of UNMC-sponsored science talks, includes pizza for the first 50 attendees and is free and open to the public.

Finicky Frank’s in Florence plans a three-course wine dinner at 6 p.m. March 8, part of an ongoing one-Monday-a-month series. Cost is $40 (not including tip). Owner Kesa Kenny said she’s cooking up a baby spinach and grilled Gala apple salad, pork tenderloin with apricots and Moroccan couscous and a coconut-lime-pudding cake to help you imagine you’re somewhere slightly more tropical. For reservations, call 451-5555.

— Nichole Aksamit

Got restaurant news, questions or tips? Call food writer Nichole Aksamit at 444-1069, or e-mail nichole.aksamit@owh.com. Dining Notes runs Fridays.

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