Daniele and Christina Puleo live in Kessler Park. They’ve had other restaurant ventures, but this one is the most personal.
“We have to make it,” Christina says. “We live here.”
The market, restaurant and bar opened a year ago and since then, the Puleos and executive chef/managing partner Ryan Olmos have been tweaking things regularly.
Pizza, baked in a gold-tiled brick oven ordered from Napoli, is the mainstay. There are five pizzas on the menu, including some with rotating seasonal ingredients, and they come out crispy crusted and irresistible. There’s also Daniele’s homemade pasta dishes and, recently added, panini made to order with fresh ingredients. Cibo Divino also now serves Pacciugo gelato.
Perhaps more important though, is the wine. The market carries some 350 labels, from $8-$200. Cibo is one of the few places where customers can buy a bottle of wine at retail price and drink it on site, saving themselves the 50-percent restaurant markup.
That becomes even more significant when one considers that the meat counter sells 44 Farms beef, which typically can be found only in high-end steakhouses. But here, you can buy a steak at retail price, and the chefs at Cibo Divino will cook your steak for free. That’s a $50 restaurant steak for $30.
Charcuterie plates, salads and desserts also are on the menu. And there are imported groceries, including some delightful Italian sauces and dried pasta.
Cibo Divino is family friendly in fair weather as the grassy lawn allows kids to cut loose while grownups hangout nearby.
Cibo Divino
1868 Sylvan
214.653.2426
cibodivinomkt.com
Ambiance: Market/cafe
Price range: $8-$35
Hours: 8 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Sunday
