Nearly 600 meals were served on opening night at Forbici’s new Sundial location as Next Level Brands expanded the Italian restaurant beyond its original Hyde Park Village location.
The restaurant served 575 meals Wednesday night, drew about 200 walk-in diners and filled its 100-seat bar throughout the evening, according to founder and CEO Jeff Gigante.
Reservations for the second night were stronger than opening day, he said, even though late June is typically one of the slower periods for Tampa Bay restaurants.
“This is the brand that we’re looking to grow,” Gigante said. “We want the number two to perform to the metrics that number one is.”
Gigante said a third Forbici is planned near Wiregrass in Wesley Chapel within the next year to year and a half. If the first three restaurants perform to expectations, he said, the company believes the concept could ultimately expand to between 20 and 40 locations across the Southeast.
“We believe there can be anywhere between 20 and 40 of these concepts throughout the Southeast United States,” Gigante said.
The St. Petersburg restaurant is the second Forbici location after the original opened in Tampa’s Hyde Park Village and the largest restaurant Gigante has built.
The 12,300-square-foot restaurant occupies the former Sea Salt space at Sundial, with seating for nearly 400 guests, private dining space, live music and indoor and outdoor bars.
The opening follows more than two years of planning. Next Level Brands originally pursued another space at Sundial before litigation involving neighboring property owners changed the redevelopment plans.
The company ultimately secured the former Sea Salt space, allowing it to renovate the existing restaurant rather than build one from the ground up while gaining a larger footprint.
For Gigante, who grew up in St. Petersburg, the opening represents both a homecoming and a business expansion. Many of his childhood friends invested in the restaurant, he said, and opening week also drew longtime Hyde Park customers across the bridge to visit the new location.
Gigante said Forbici combines moderate pricing, live music and a nearly 400-seat dining room in a format designed to appeal to a broad range of diners.
Unlike the company’s higher-end concepts, he said, Forbici is intended to become part of customers’ weekly routines rather than a destination reserved for special occasions.
That operating model shapes the restaurant’s economics. Gigante said pizza and pasta keep ingredient costs relatively stable compared with restaurants that rely more heavily on proteins.
Portions are intentionally generous, prices typically increase only once or twice a year and the strategy is designed to encourage repeat visits rather than special-occasion dining.
“People are voting with their pocketbooks,” Gigante said.
“We’re looking to increase guest visits to two to three times per week,” he said. “You’ve got to really create the trust in your consumer where they’re like, ‘Every time we come here, there’s music playing, there’s great vibe, there’s energy, it’s good, the food’s consistent and we get a good portion.'”
Gigante said Next Level Brands documents construction, hiring and employee training before each opening, so customers become familiar with a restaurant before visiting for the first time.
“He who tells the best story wins,” Gigante said. “They take the ride along with us right through opening.”
Next Level Brands is already planning its next investment in St. Petersburg. Drift, a cocktail bar under development at Sundial, is expected to open later this year, and Gigante said additional concepts could follow.
“When we move, it’s with purpose,” Gigante said. “We’re here in such a significant way that it’s just natural that we’re going to be looking to do more brands in the area.”
Gigante said the region bears little resemblance to the Tampa Bay where he opened his first South Tampa restaurant in 1996. At the time, he said he often walked servers to their cars after work because there was so little around the neighborhood.
Population growth, downtown redevelopment and the expansion of technology, finance and cybersecurity have since created a much larger customer base for restaurants.
“People are eating out as part of their culture now,” Gigante said. “They’re not looking at it as just a commodity. They’re looking at it as their entertainment, their travel, their culture.”
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