The last night of Il Trullo -- for now
By CHARLES FERRUZZA
Saturday night was jumping, to put it mildly, at Il Trullo, the cozy Italian restaurant at 9056 Metcalf in Overland Park. At 8 p.m., every table was occupied and there was still a wait for customers who had either made a late reservation or just walked in and wanted to get one last bowl of gnocchi with wild mushroom ragu or beef short ribs served with polenta and roasted parsnips.
"They're all regulars," said Joe Avelutto Jr., who has run the family-owned restaurant for many years. "They wanted to be here for our last night."
Sunday morning, the 13-year-old Il Trullo was officially closed. For good, but apparently not forever.
The dream restaurant of Apulian-born Joseph Avelutto (who also opened the popular, low-priced Italian Delight in Mission), Il Trullo featured a wood-burning oven in the shape of a peaked-roof little house -- a trulli -- in the center of the restaurant. For most of the last decade, Il Trullo had been run by his son, Joe Avelutto Jr.
Joe Jr. had never felt that the location, in a dated shopping strip at 90th and Metcalf, was the ideal settting for a restaurant that served a unique, specialized Italian cuisine. And over the last decade, the immediate neighborhood became glutted with corporate-run Italian rivals: Cinzetti's Italian Restaurant, Carrabba's Italian Grill, and the Macaroni Grill.
Joe Jr. told me he plans to re-open the restaurant in a different location.
"The irony is that last summer was the best we've ever had. We really did well. But the last eight weeks have been tough, really tough. But we're definitely planning to re-open. It's all about finding the perfect spot."
He's already looked at several locations in south Johnson County and said he would consider a spot on the Missouri side. "I live in Brookside, so I'd like working closer to home," he said.
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