First time restaurateur Paul Petruzzi and Fion Wine Pub owner Josh McKay are teaming up to expand Fion to include upscale dining.
Construction is underway next door to Fion in the Shops at Steiner. Eventually the two spaces will be connected with an archway. The restaurant is expected to open by the end of August or the first part of September.
“I’m really excited about Steiner Ranch and opening up. I think it’s a great location,” Petruzzi said. He has decades worth of experience working in the restaurant industry and as a research and development chef creating frozen entrees for retail.
Petruzzi and McKay have known each other for years. The idea to partner with McKay came after Petruzzi came to see Fion and the available space next door.
The Fion eatery is expected to seat around 60 people, including a small bar in front of the open kitchen. It will also have a large monitor that can be used for meetings and Petruzzi might offer dinner and movies. The patio is being renovated and a large awning will be going up.
Petruzzi plans to use local fresh ingredients as much as possible.
The menu on the pub side will include Guinness beer-battered jumbo onions, deep fried Spanish olives stuffed with blue cheese, and pub-style fish and chips seasoned with sea salt and served with malted vinegar and house-made ketchup.
Appetizers in the new dinning room will feature the classic onion soup topped with melted Gruyere cheese and potato encrusted crab cake with sweet red onion marmalade.
Entrees will include pan-seared halibut on a bed of roasted tomatoes and spinach, cast iron skillet seared double cut pork chops with caramelized onions, asparagus and roasted Yukon gold potatoes with a Gorgonzola demi-glaze. Fried chicken with mashed potatoes, grilled sweet corn and collard greens will be another selection.
At the existing pub, Fion customers can buy beverages to take home or drink on premise. The shop has over 600 wines including more than 40 Texas wines and over 500 beers including about 10 from Texas beer producers.
McKay has opened several businesses over the years. Five years ago, McKay opened a retail shop in Bee Cave specializing in wine and specialty liquors; three years ago he opened a store in San Angelo, Texas and sold it after 18 months. Last October he came to Steiner Ranch and opened Fion.
Petruzzi is a Woodbury, Conn. native. He started out washing dishes at age 15 then spent the next 16 years moving up the ladder in the restaurant business from flipping eggs at a truck stop to working at 2 and 3-star restaurants in the Northeast.
When Petruzzi was coming up in the 1980s, cooking did not have the popularity it does today. But he had a passion for it even though his family continually would ask him about finding a real job.
Petruzzi went on to attend the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. After that was recruited by frozen food maker Michael Angelo’s Inc., which has a plant in Austin. As a R&D chef for 8 years he developed dishes for stores such as Whole Foods Market, Costco Wholesale, Sam’s Club and H-E-B grocery.
One of his favorite dishes he created was poached halibut on a bed of spinach and white beans topped with tomato and creamy mushrooms and drizzled with truffle oil. It is still on shelves today in certain parts of the country, during certain seasons.
He created a buffalo wing sandwich for Whole Foods and at Sam’s he developed a chicken piccata dish that is also still available in parts of the country.
Petruzzi left that job earlier this year to focus on the Fion eatery. He wants to create a comfortable, neighborhood place in Steiner Ranch.
“I’m excited to bring this kind of food down there,” Petruzzi said.
For the first month, the Fion restaurant will focus on dinners and getting the crew up to speed. After that, Petruzzi plans to add lunches.
