The owners of Nōnnō Umberto expected a fairly quiet soft opening for the rebranded Italian restaurant on St. Armands Circle the first week of January.
But it was anything but quiet as staff served more than 250 people on the first night, growing to 800 people over the course of the first week, according to co-owner Amber Mayner.
She and her husband, Simone Salustri, have looked forward to the opening all year. When hurricanes Helene and Milton forced the family to close Le Colonne, they didn’t know what the next steps would be.
To keep the business afloat, Simone and Mayner opened an Italian food truck called Buonissimo Mobile Italian Kitchen last year. The move gave them time to figure out what to do next with the brick-and-mortar location on St. Armands Circle…