Michelin-recommended Tralia is heading north—but it isn’t leaving Gulf Gate behind. Instead, Chef Anthony Petralia is giving his Italian restaurant and pizzeria a downtown sibling—one with more handmade pasta, a full bar and a slightly dressier wardrobe.

Petralia plans to open the second Tralia in the former Original Wolfie’s & Rascal House space at 1420 Boulevard of the Arts in the Rosemary District.

“It’ll be the same name,” Petralia, 39, says. He says the details are still taking shape, but he expects “a slightly different concept—more entrées, more pasta-forward. We still will have pizza, but just more of an all-around Italian restaurant, where Tralia Pizza will remain pizza-focused first.”

Petralia hopes to open in December. Final decisions about the menu, layout and seating are still being made.

The former Wolfie’s space, which previously housed The Overton, already contains much of the restaurant infrastructure Petralia needs. He expects to make mostly cosmetic changes instead of undertaking a complete build-out.

“It should be a pretty quick, easy turnaround for us,” he says.

Petralia estimates the restaurant could seat roughly 150 diners, although the final count will depend on the new floor plan. The property includes substantial outdoor seating, and he’s considering adding banquettes or booths inside. A full bar is also planned.

The new Tralia will share some of the colorful, contemporary Italian character of the Gateway Avenue restaurant, whose décor includes a pop-art interpretation of Venus. However, the Rosemary District location will have its own identity, likely incorporating a mural or other original wall art.

“It’ll have a lot of the same vibe,” Petralia says. “We can do a little bit more with that space, make it a little bit more elevated.”

That approach fits a neighborhood filling up with new condominiums, apartments and hotels—and the diners who come with them.

“There’s a lot of really, really nice condos going up, a lot of nice hotels right down the road,” Petralia says. “I think it calls for a more upscale vibe [and] menu.”

The Rosemary location will also serve lunch. How late it remains open will depend on the neighborhood, although Petralia would like to stay open until 11 p.m. or midnight, as the Gulf Gate restaurant sometimes does.

Prices are expected to remain close to those at the existing Tralia. Petralia anticipates round pizzas beginning at approximately $16 or $17, small plates in the mid-teens, pasta dishes in the $20s and entrées above $30.

“It will be a lot more pasta-heavy, more handmade stuffed pastas and entrées, whatever that may be,” he says. “Definitely familiar, approachable Italian dishes just done a little bit differently, like we’re known for.”

Petralia considered Lakewood Ranch, West Bradenton and locations farther south before the former Wolfie’s restaurant became available. He says the Rosemary District had interested him since before the original Tralia found a permanent home.

“I like being in the arts district,” he says. “I like being close to downtown. That’s always an area I wanted to be in.”

Tralia began in July 2020 as a one-day-a-week virtual restaurant operating from a Gulf Gate commissary kitchen. Customers ordered online and picked up sourdough pizzas and a small selection of Italian dishes on Saturdays. Petralia’s parents and siblings pitched in during the early days.

The family’s restaurant roots reach much further back. Petralia grew up in Rochester, New York, and began washing dishes at 13 at a restaurant where his mother worked as a server. His father occasionally cooked there, relatives on his grandmother’s side owned restaurants in western New York and his great-grandfather owned a New York pizzeria before Petralia was born.

“Nobody in my immediate family had ever owned restaurants before, but it’s definitely in my blood,” he says.

Petralia's paternal grandfather’s family came from Sicily. His surname shares its name with Petralia Soprana, a mountain town southeast of Palermo, and Tralia borrows the final portion of the family name.

After the weekly operation developed a following, Petralia added more pickup days and staged pop-ups at businesses including 99 Bottles Taproom & Bottle Shop. Tralia opened its first small brick-and-mortar restaurant on Superior Avenue in Gulf Gate in 2023. The roughly 20-seat location remained oriented largely toward takeout.

After that restaurant closed, Petralia spent about four months helping open Riva, the Italian restaurant at The St. Regis Longboat Key Resort, while searching for Tralia’s next home. The current, larger Gateway Avenue space opened in December 2024.

There, Tralia serves two locally beloved pizza styles: a 12-inch sourdough artisan round and an 8-by-10-inch Detroit-style square with a crisp cheese edge. The menu has grown to include Caesar salad, polenta-crusted wings, ricotta meatballs and chicken and veal Parmesan.

Its pizzas already stray happily from the red-sauce straight and narrow. The menu includes a "’Roni & Hot Honey" pie; a "Funghi" with oyster mushrooms, goat cheese and truffle oil; and the Michelin-praised "MVP," striped with marinara, vodka sauce and pesto.

In May, Tralia became one of the first Sarasota restaurants included in the Michelin Guide. It was designated "Michelin Recommended," with inspectors singling out the MVP pizza.

Petralia says the recognition produced a noticeable increase in business, even during Sarasota’s slower summer months.

“Even in July and August, we’re busier than we ever have been,” he says. “We know that if we’re at capacity now, expanding will hopefully help alleviate some of the pressure off of Gulf Gate, as well.”

Petralia calls himself “anti-tradition” and sees no reason to excommunicate pineapple, pickles or other disputed toppings if they taste good. He’s made a pineapple pizza before and may bring it back—possibly with prosciutto.

“Who am I to judge you and tell you you’re wrong?” he says.

In Sarasota’s most combustible culinary debate, consider that a vote for pineapple’s right to exist.

Pizza rules may be flexible, but diners have established a few habits of their own. Petralia says almost every table orders a Caesar salad, and customers frequently try one round pizza and one Detroit square. Chicken Parmesan has also become one of the restaurant’s biggest sellers.

The Gulf Gate restaurant will remain open and largely unchanged. Petralia expects to divide his time between the two locations after spending the coming months preparing his current team to operate more independently.

The new restaurant is expected to employ at least 20 to 30 people, depending on demand. The Gulf Gate restaurant currently employs about 20.

Longer term, Petralia envisions building a restaurant group. He considers Tralia Pizza the concept most suited to replication, while the Rosemary District restaurant could remain a one-of-a-kind, more elevated expression of the brand.

“A larger restaurant group is the long-term goal,” he says. “How we get there is yet to be determined. We’ll figure that out as we go.”

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