Davio's Cucina Preps and Polishes for Tuesday's Grand Opening

When Davio's Cucina opens its doors in Chestnut Hill Tuesday, it will do so with all the customer favorites, made-from-scratch dishes, high-quality house wines and the outstanding service of other Davio's locations.

But it will also do it without the linen.

That's because owner Steve DiFillippo's vision for his Chestnut Hill location is for a more approachable, more laid back restaurant even as it continues to offer the stellar Northern Italian cuisine his other Davio's locations have become known for throughout the past three decades.

"I didn't want to do a full Davio's Steakhouse," DiFillippo relates. "I wanted it to be more casual, approachable. It's just not as formal. Not as expensive."

His reasoning behind that is tied largely to his unique partnership with the Showcase SuperLux cinema with which he shares the second floor corner at The Street, the new Chestnut Hill development where Pottery Barn, Shake Shack, Pinkberry and Bernard's have already opened their doors.

DiFillippo's venture into Chestnut Hill came thanks to a phone call from Shari Redstone, an executive with Viacom and National Amusements and, as it turns out, a big fan of Davio's.

Redstone told DiFillippo that she wanted a restaurant connected to the new theater her company was opening in Chestnut Hill and asked him to be that restaurant.

"I'm a Boston guy," DiFillippo says. "Chestnut Hill was always one of my favorite neighborhoods. Partnering was a new thing for me, but I thought this was the time to do it."

The Chestnut Hill Davio's Experience

On Tuesday at 5 p.m., Davio's will welcome its first dinner guests to the new Chestnut Hill location. When those guests arrive, they'll find a staff that has spent weeks preparing for them.

DiFillippo's restaurant has been buzzing for weeks as servers and cooks train by cooking for and serving one another. Rather than invite friends and family in for the training sessions, DiFillippo prefers to train his staff, with his staff since he expects they'll be more honest about the experience than family or friends.

By the time customers arrive, DiFillippo says, the servers will have eaten plenty of the Davio's fare and know exactly how to talk about it with hungry guests.

So what will Davio's be serving?

Well, DiFillippo knows his customers, and he knows that they expect their favorites.

"I'd be crazy not to have some of the fan favorites," DiFillippo insists. "There are things people would picket my house if I didn't have them on the menu."

One of those "things" DiFillippo knows that people come to Davio's for are the cuts of Brandt Beef, which he'll be serving and that will make up the higher end of the Chestnut Hill menu.

Largely, though, DiFillippo says he sees Davio's Cucina as "more of a snacking place" where customers stop to eat before or after they see a movie at the Showcase SuperLux next door.

For that reason, the pizza and burgers that only make the lunch menu at his Boston location will be on the dinner menu at Chestnut Hill along with a lengthy selection of "small plates" such as Kobe beef meatballs and calamari.

And, of course, a section of the menu is devoted to Davio's famous spring rolls.

"I'm kind of excited about the turn over," DiFillippo explains, relating that his Boston restaurant often welcomes diners for a two or two-and-a-half hour dining experience. "I think it's going to be really fast. It's going to be kind of cool to see people come in. You get your meal out to more people, you see more people. I think it's going to be younger, too. The burger and pizza menu is more approachable. That's what they want."

The space itself is warm and inviting (the smells wafting out of the open kitchen don't hurt, either) with a number of seating options when it comes to where you want to enjoy your meal.

There's the larger dining room, Davio's signature wine room for more intimate gatherings, a nook with a single round table for small parties and the Cook's Bar where guests can look into the kitchen as their meals are prepared.

At the center of it all stands a grand circular bar displaying top-shelf liquor for Davio's creative collection of signature cocktails.

And whether guests arrive Tuesday for a Sanguinella (that's vodka, pomegranate juice, blood orange liqueur, triple sec and fresh lemon), a prosciutto and fig pizza, a burger with truffle cheese or a 16-ounce Brandt Beef ribeye, DiFillippo expects his team to shine and the guests' experience to be ideal.

"I've opened so many restaurants," DiFillippo says. "I don't care how many restaurants you've opened, you're scared to death. That first night, you just want to get your feet wet.

"We're really going all out to make sure we're ready," he insists. "We gotta make sure we perform."

Davio's Cucina will open for dinner at 5 p.m. Tuesday. The restaurant will begin serving lunch the following week at 11 a.m. on Monday, June 17. For more information, check out the Davio's Cucina at Chestnut Hill website.