La Scola scores

New Italian bistro unites Toledo restaurant royalty

by Blake Gillespie

published September 26th 2007

Local restaurant owners seem bent on making Toledo feel less like a sister city and more like a richly cultured community with a sharp tongue for fine cuisine. This trend is continuing with La Scola, an Italian bar and grille on Airport Highway near Reynolds Road, opening in early October.

The owners are all Toledo locals with a longtime presence in the restaurant scene. Gus Nicolaidis formerly owned the Oaken Bucket, Moussa Salloukh was a vice president in the Docks district and Executive Chef Chris Dewart has been a chef in several local restaurants including Ciao! and Rosie's Italian Grill.

“We want to create an atmosphere that has local feel where everybody knows you by name,” Salloukh said. “But we also wanted to create something that feels big city, yet maintains its connection to a small city.” Salloukh hopes the New York style seating and big city ambiance will give Toledo’s younger crowd a reason to stick around, instead of migrating to those cities.

Greeting patrons as they walk in the doors of La Scola are black and white photos of community members, with the purpose of creating an instant feeling of comfort and familiarity. The interior lighting is a soothing amber that complements the dark leather lounge area and burgundy draperies, while making the faux marble columns stand out.

La Scola features seated dining, private curtained seating, a fireplace room for business meetings, a lounge area, Italian style patio and a full bar with an extensive wine list. Salloukh said the wine list is “80 percent Italian and 20 percent everything else.”

Dewart’s menu runs the gamut of Italian flavor with calamari, pizza, several pasta styles, and also includes steak and duck. Salloukh said Dewart’s Vitello Marsala is the best he has tasted. He also wants to assure patrons that if they are unsure of the menu, they should not hesitate to ask the servers. “They will know the ingredients since Italians use quite a bit of herbs,” he said. “If you are not very knowledgeable on wine, we’ll be able to pair up a wine with the meal.”

Dewart added, “People are becoming more educated through TV food networks. When you taste food at a common diner now, you can recognize quality. So we all have to stay very sharp and be on top of the hot trends.”

In addition to the wine selection, the bar will feature a basil strawberry mojito, Italian margarita and signature martinis. The lounge area will also include the option of bottle service so patrons can lounge at ease.

The goal of the owners is to interact with the patrons. Dewart said he even to make table to table visits to ensure that meals were prepared to satisfaction. “We want the customers to walk away saying they loved everything from the food to the drinks to the bread,” he said.

They want patrons to feel as though a meal was prepared by an Italian grandmother from the old country. “It’s a place for a classy meal with a price range that everyone can afford,” Salloukh said. “We want to feed you to where you have to take home food in a box.”

La Scola will have a soft opening on October 1. 5325 Airport Hwy. 419-381-2100.