WILMINGTON — Gianni Cinelli has spent four decades in restaurants, opening dozens of eateries and building a career around the Italian food he grew up with. Now, he’s putting his favorite flavors — prime steaks, homemade pasta and family recipes — into a new Italian steakhouse opening next month near Marsh Oaks.
“It’s all about taste and flavor,” Cinelli said Monday.
Brasato Chophouse will be his first restaurant in Wilmington, though he operates Pender County eateries like Driftwood in Hampstead and Spiaggia Ristobar in Sneads Ferry. Brasato will have 100 seats, open at 7968 Market St. daily at 11:30 a.m., for both lunch and dinner, seven days a week. Lunch prices will be between $12 and $20 and dinner from $20 to $60.
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Cinelli never planned on a career in restaurants; he wanted to be a sports announcer, but when that didn’t work out, he joined the Marine Corps. After being discharged because of an injury, he returned to New York and entered the restaurant industry.
Cinelli and his wife, Randi, eventually moved to Raleigh, had three children, and began opening or collaborating on numerous Triangle restaurants. Throughout 20 years this included Rocco’s, Osteria G., Vienni Ristobar and Vivo, the latter named Raleigh’s Best Italian Restaurant for consecutive years.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, Cinelli began considering retirement. He favored the mountains, while his wife preferred the coast. Two children had attended UNCW, and the family often visited the nearby Surf City.
“I was born in the mountains of Italy,” Cinelli explained. “But Randi grew up on an island, going to the beach in New York.”
They moved into their beach home in 2018 but it wasn’t long before Cinelli’s wife decided retirement wasn’t for her. In 2024, they opened Spiaggia at a time when Cinelli also faced a more serious challenge. He was diagnosed with cancer and an unruptured brain aneurysm, and underwent treatment while building the restaurant. He beat the cancer diagnosis but still lives with the aneurysm, which doctors determined was too close to the carotid artery to operate on.
“I’ve probably had it my whole life,” Cinelli said, but keeps a sense of humor about it. “I’m Italian, we don’t have much of a neck. It’s not an occupational hazard if you have one.”
Spiaggia, located on N.C. Highway 210 in Sneads Ferry, has grown into a $3 million-a-year business, according to Cinelli, serving pasta, salads and pizzas.
In July 2025, he also opened Hampstead’s Driftwood — a finer dining establishment, with chops, duck, seafood, and steaks on the menu. Cinelli operates it as a family affair, too, bringing in his brother from New York and his sister from Florida to help run it.
Brasato will lean further into Cinelli’s Italian roots, with family recipes taught to him by his mother.
“Because it’s my last place, I’m doing it my way,” he said.
Upon moving to Surf City, Cinelli became friends with Camp Lejeune Marines who visited or lived on the shore. They would drink bourbon, smoke cigars and grill out steaks — “and I cooked Italian food for everybody,” he said.
Brasato will bring those two worlds together in a menu consisting of ribeyes, filets, T-bones, but also Italian classics like braciole. The meat is pounded thin, stuffed with garlic and breadcrumbs, and slow-braised in tomato sauce.
“And it’s traditionally not the best cut of meat,” Cinelli explained, noting in Italy it was considered peasant food, made from available scraps.
The red sauce will be simple and light, focused on good tomatoes and fresh garlic. But he wants to focus on other sauces, like carbonara, which will be egg-based, not the cream-based Americanized version often found in some eateries — and cacio e pepe, made with Pecorino, black pepper and starchy pasta water.
“It’s all about the Pecorino,” Cinelli said, “and the technique.”
All pasta is homemade, the gnocchi done by hand.
For lunch, there will be sandwiches, pizzas and salads. He wants to feature a mortadella or porchetta handheld — the latter consists of slow-roasted pork stuffed with fennel, garlic, and herbs, served on a crusty roll like ciabatta or focaccia.
There also will be revolving specials for both lunch and dinner.
The decor will be “rich in color,” Cinelli said, noting his daughter, Samantha — who has designed six of his restaurants to date — steers clear of stereotypical red gingham tablecloths and red color schemes. Brasato will be warmer, with black, varied woods, iron, and travertine and porcelain featured in the back bar.
The bar program will be elevated, inclusive of Italian aperitivi — such as an Americano, which mixes Campari, sweet Vermouth and soda water. Cinelli is looking forward to a smoked Old Fashioned and other bourbon options, too.
After-dinner digestifs, usually higher in alcohol with profiles of bitter, herbal or anise flavors, will be offered. Limoncello may come to mind for most, a sweet, bright lemon-zest liqueur served ice-cold. Though other popular items include grappa, strong brandy distilled from leftover grape skins, seeds, and stems, and Sambuca, a clear, anise-flavored liqueur served with floating coffee beans.
“These are lacking in Wilmington,” he said. “And it helps break down food.”
The goal is to open Brasato by Sept. 15, but Cinelli has to oversee finishing touches in the restaurant. This week they’re putting together tables and chairs, and he still has to complete his crew, which he anticipates hiring upward of 50 people.
There won’t be a head chef, per se, as Cinelli wants someone who understands the importance of following his family’s recipes, though he is hiring a sous chef and executive kitchen manager.
“I’m old school, and I put too much life into this business and food,” he said. “I give latitude when it comes to specials, but we really want to stay true to who we are.”
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