The owners of popular local restaurants Persimmon and Wild Tomato are opening an Italian restaurant in Cabin John.
Stephanie and Damian Salvatore will open Sal’s Italian Kitchen later this month in the MacArthur Boulevard space that had been occupied by Indigo House, which closed Friday night. The Salvatores had operated Indigo House, an Asian fusion restaurant, for 14 months, but decided to close after the number of customers fell short of expectations.
“Indigo was a great adventure, but it was time for us to do what we do best, a neighborhood bistro,” Stephanie Salvatore said Sunday. “We talked about a few different concepts but kept coming back to Italian. We both grew up with mothers who loved to cook. And we both spent hours around dining tables enjoying meals with family and friends. Damian is Italian and the food plays such a huge part in the culture. It made sense.”
She said Damian and his staff are currently creating the menu. “There will be lots of familiar dishes and some more complex,” she said. “They are trying to create a menu where families with all ages and levels of food adventure have choice.”
Salvatore said Sal’s will be able to open so quickly after closing Indigo House because the space is undergoing mostly cosmetic changes. “The layout will be the same, some of the elements will remain, but the overall look will feel totally different—bright, rustic and totally casual,“ she said.
The changes will include painting over a striking mural of a woman with tattoos, Salvatore said.
The space where Sal’s will open is in the same strip mall as Wild Tomato.