New San Marco restaurant offers upscale Italian at affordable prices. Meet Limoncello.

A Jacksonville fine dining destination for nearly 24 years is broadening its culinary horizons with a new restaurant promising an upscale Italian menu featuring family recipes at "less expensive prices."

Limoncello Ristorante — reflecting the flavors and ambiance of the Island of Capri — recently opened inside Bistro AIX at 1440 San Marco Blvd. in historic San Marco.

Limoncello fills the newly renovated space previously home to Le Bar, the successor to Onyx, inside the venerable Bistro AIX, which focuses on sophisticated French-style cuisine.

The new restaurant is a concept of Bistro AIX owner Marcello Villani, a veteran restaurateur and semi-retired investor who traces his roots back to Capri in Italy's Bay of Naples.

It joins other San Marco fine dining and upscale restaurants including Pink Salt Restaurant + Wine Bar, which is next door to Bistro AIX, as well as nearby City Grille & Raw Bar, Taverna Oceana and Taverna San Marco.

Limoncello offers family-inspired dishes including his late mother's lasagna, Villani told the Times-Union.

On the menu at Limoncello Restorante

Villani said they make 75 percent of the food in-house.

"We make our own pasta. We make our own cheese and we make our own bread," he said, noting they also offer seasonal dishes with ingredients sourced from local farmers.

All of which contributes to keeping Limoncello's prices moderate while still providing high-end "haute cuisine," he said.

"The only way we could do it is by doing Italian, because [with] French, there are too many expensive items to import, which we did eliminate from the menu. Some people don't like that, but as they say, 'in extreme time, extreme remedies'."

Nonetheless, Bistro AIX remains a fine dining restaurant. So, too, is Limoncello. Bistro AIX customers can still use Limoncello's bar and vice versa, he said.

At the heart of Limoncello is the lasagna, which is a tried and true recipe, he said, created by his late mother, Lucia "Lulu" Villani, who recently passed away from brain cancer. He said some of the restaurant's proceeds will be donated to the Cancer Society in her memory.

Limoncello signature entrees include:

• Lasagna Mamma Lulu ($14): House-baked lasagna

• Gnocchi Tetta ($15): Made with cream and cooked ham

• Black Linguine Seafood ($15): Mixed seafood in a spice marinara sauce

• Fish Ortolana ($15): White fish served with mixed vegetables and lemon butter sauce

• Pappardelle Contadina ($14): Pappardelle with wild mushrooms, chopped walnuts and truffle and cream sauce

Pizzas include Pizza Parmigiana ($12), with tomato, mozzarella, eggplant and grana cheese; Capricciosa Verace Pizza ($14), with tomato, mozzarella, mushrooms, olives, prosciutto and artichoke; and the Limoncello Pizza ($14), with gorgonzola, mozzarella, olive oil and basil then garnished with fresh lemon zest, according to the menu.

Appetizers include Rollatini ($11), thinly sliced eggplant with tomato sauce and stuffed with brie and ricotta; Frittura Mista ($12), fried zucchini, calamari and cheese zeppole served with marinara; and Polpettine Caprese ($13), beef meatballs baked in lemon butter sauce then topped with fresh ricotta cheese, the menu shows.

Customer concerns lead to less expensive prices

Villani said although he fell in love with Bistro AIX and its food, he "wasn't happy" with the lounge simply being like a drinking place.

"So I decided, why not introduce another cuisine less expensive than Bistro AIX," Villani said, adding the decision was influenced by concerns expressed by customers over the past four years.

One of their main concerns because of COVID, the recession and everything was the cost of eating at Bistro AIX. Many said they used to come two or three times a week but since the COVID-19 pandemic, they only came two or three times a month. And "everybody pointed to their pockets" as the reason why, he said.

"So, I said what can I give back to the community to allow them to go to the same rate that they used to come and visit us without breaking the bank basically," Villani said.

Villani noted that, unlike other Jacksonville restaurants, they aren't raising their prices.

"We have lowered the price by 25% to 30% at Bistro AIX, and our price point for Limoncello is actually less than 50 percent than Bistro AIX," Villani said. "Our most expensive item at Limoncello is a fish dish at $15."

Villani also said another factor was his desire to reach out to less affluent residents of San Marco and neighboring areas to encourage them to "come in and taste our foods."

"We'll have to work harder, but at the end of the day, we are giving something back to the community that supported us during COVID and all these hard times," he noted.

Eclectic decor

Limoncello at Bistro AIX is named for the Italian lemon liqueur produced in Capri, which is where Villani comes from and where a relative has a popular restaurant built under the island's lemon trees.

Villani chose the vivid lemon yellow and indigo blue color scheme of his restaurant because they are the colors of Capri. The restaurant also features an eclectic mix of posters and portraits on the walls. There also are silver candles on the tables designed to offer a warm, inviting glow.

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One of Limoncello's biggest features is the removal of tinting from the restaurant's windows to allow in natural light.

"Before, the idea was almost like a speakeasy. People couldn't look in. I said forget about that. I want everybody to look in," he said.

Limoncello initially is open only for dinner. Its hours are 4 to 9:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, 4 to 10 p.m. Saturday and closed Sunday, its website shows.

Teresa Stepzinski is the dining reporter for the Times-Union. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, @TeresaStepz or reach her via email at tstepzinski@jacksonville.com.

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This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Limoncello Ristorante opens in Jacksonville's historic San Marco