Forbici Modern Italian sets opening date for downtown St. Pete restaurant
/Forbici will open on wednesday June 24th at Sundial in downtown St. Pete | St. pete Rising
After nearly three years of planning and construction, Forbici Modern Italian has set an opening date for its highly anticipated St. Pete location.
The 12,000-square-foot Italian restaurant will officially debut on Wednesday, June 24th, at 183 2nd Avenue North in downtown St. Pete's Sundial retail complex.
Reservations for opening week are now available through OpenTable.
Forbici will open in the second-floor space formerly occupied by Sea Salt, which closed at the end of 2024 after nearly 10 years in business.
After a multi-million-dollar renovation, the restaurant now features an expansive outdoor patio, a private dining room, multiple TV-lined bars, and a sprawling dining space with seating for up to 350 guests.
The St. Pete restaurant will be the second location for Forbici, which first opened in Tampa's Hyde Park Village in 2019.
Forbici’s Fiore Square pizza with Grape Tomatoes, Pomodoro, Roasted Peppers, Arugula, Mozzarella, Ricotta | Forbici
The St. Pete location will retain roughly 90% of the menu served at the Hyde Park location, including its popular Roman-style pizzas, handmade pastas, and shareable antipasti.
The local menu will include a few additions tailored to St. Pete, such as a heavier focus on seafood dishes.
For lunch, Forbici will offer sandwiches, salads, pizzas, and pasta dishes, while dinner features a lineup of antipasti, handmade pastas, seafood, steaks, and traditional Italian entrées.
Popular starters include wagyu beef carpaccio, fried calamari, Calabrian chicken wings, meatballs, and mussels sautéed with white wine, tomatoes, and fennel.
Entrées range from chicken milanese and veal parmesan to red fish piccata and a 12-ounce New York strip.
As for pizza, guests can choose between square-style teglia pizzas and traditional round tonda pizzas.
Options include classics like margherita, pepperoni, and four-cheese, plus specialty pies such as the Alora, topped with mozzarella, gorgonzola dolce, prosciutto, grape tomatoes, arugula, and truffle oil.
Forbici’s sirloin with Maldon Sea Salt, Arugula, Truffle Parmesan Fries | Forbici
The pasta menu includes dishes like cacio e pepe, rigatoni alla vodka, tagliatelle bolognese, mushroom cavatelli, tortellini, penne pesto, and eggplant lasagna.
Its drink menu features Italian-inspired cocktails, wine, beer, spritzes.
Forbici is part of Next Level Brands Hospitality, the Tampa-based restaurant group behind Union New American and Boulon Brasserie & Bakery.
The company is led by St. Pete native Jeff Gigante, real estate investor Andrew Wright, and attorney Joseph Guggino.
In addition to Forbici, Next Level Brands Hospitality will operate a new outdoor cocktail bar in Sundial courtyard called Drift.
The bar will occupy approximately 1,500 square feet with seating for 26 guests, along with surrounding lounge areas that can accommodate another 50 people.
Once open, Forbici will operate from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Thursday, 11 a.m. to midnight Friday, 10 a.m. to midnight Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday.
