NOW OPEN NOVEL ITALIAN
Charlotte Magazine|July 2021
Paul Verica brings a simpler version of the city’s hottest food trend to NoDa
TAYLOR BOWLER
NOW OPEN NOVEL ITALIAN

A WAVE OF NEW ITALIAN restaurants has crashed over Charlotte in the past two years: osterias, gourmet pizza places, Venetian wine bars. They’ve opened in affluent areas where upscale restaurants tend to congregate, like uptown, SouthPark, Dilworth, and Myers Park.

But Paul Verica, a two-time James Beard semifinalist, ventured outside the nouveau-Italian trend’s bubble in February when he opened Orto in the Novel NoDa project.

ORTO ITALIAN KITCHEN

416 E. 36th St. ortonoda.com

Hours: 5 p.m.-9 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday 5 p.m.-10 p.m. Friday-Saturday 5 p.m.-9 p.m. Sunday

The menu is a departure from the farm-to table style he’s known for at The Stanley, but his Italian dishes are just as lovingly prepared. He doesn’t go overboard with unnecessary garnishes or elaborate presentations, because he knows pizza and pasta don’t need to be fancy or reinvented to please the dining public.

The 3,000-square-foot space is a few steps from the LYNX Blue Line’s 36th Street Station, in the same building as Wooden Robot and Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams. Orto, which means “garden” in Italian, isn’t a dimly lit trattoria with checkered tablecloths and dark stucco walls. The interior is open and bright with high ceilings, light wood tones, and framed watercolor images Verica brought back from Italy. One wall features a 13-foot mural of a vegetable garden by artist Duy Huynh, who owns Lark & Key gallery in Dilworth.

This story is from the July 2021 edition of Charlotte Magazine.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

This story is from the July 2021 edition of Charlotte Magazine.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

MORE STORIES FROM CHARLOTTE MAGAZINEView All
‘This Is How We're Going to Make Your Child Better'
Charlotte Magazine

‘This Is How We're Going to Make Your Child Better'

Pediatric neurosurgery is technically and emotionally complex—and traditionally dominated by men. As Novant’s first female pediatric neurosurgeon, Dr. Erin Kiehna Richardson has had to learn the intricacies of a demanding field and battle sexism along the way

time-read
10+ mins  |
July 2021
The Dumbledore of CMC
Charlotte Magazine

The Dumbledore of CMC

A surgery resident wrote a series of children’s books and created a special kind of medical magic

time-read
7 mins  |
July 2021
LGBTQ HB2+5
Charlotte Magazine

LGBTQ HB2+5

Five years after the furor of House Bill 2, the LGBTQ community—in Charlotte, in North Carolina, and across much of the nation—fights attacks on new fronts

time-read
6 mins  |
July 2021
Oh, Snap!
Charlotte Magazine

Oh, Snap!

New ‘selfie museum’ in Concord celebrates the 1990s

time-read
5 mins  |
July 2021
ALLISON LATOS
Charlotte Magazine

ALLISON LATOS

The WSOC anchor on her hard trek from one episode of loss and grief to another—and the meaning of resilience

time-read
7 mins  |
July 2021
GOOD HEALTH
Charlotte Magazine

GOOD HEALTH

For years, Charlotte has been one of the largest American cities that lacked a four-year medical school. The health care professionals who finally made it happen overcame a series of setbacks, false starts, and failures, and they plan to use their clean slate to create a new kind of community asset

time-read
10+ mins  |
July 2021
Summer Partee
Charlotte Magazine

Summer Partee

From woodwork to retail, the kindergarten teacher-turned-designer has learned how to do it herself

time-read
3 mins  |
July 2021
Uptown or Downtown?
Charlotte Magazine

Uptown or Downtown?

Archives illuminate how long we’ve argued over the perennial question

time-read
3 mins  |
July 2021
NOW OPEN NOVEL ITALIAN
Charlotte Magazine

NOW OPEN NOVEL ITALIAN

Paul Verica brings a simpler version of the city’s hottest food trend to NoDa

time-read
3 mins  |
July 2021
TOP DOCTORS 2021
Charlotte Magazine

TOP DOCTORS 2021

The annual list you can't without

time-read
10+ mins  |
July 2021