Volume 5, Number 1
SPRING 2019
WEST END LIVING
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NEW TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD
Greenhouse Enoteca Restaurant Blooms out of Former Flower Shop
The brother-sister team of Antonino (left) and Salvatrice (right) Pitruzzella opened Greenhouse Enoteca in early February. They’ve transformed what was once a flower shop into dining and bar space (below).
PHOTOS BY JANE GEIST PHOTOGRAPHY
Salvatrice Pitruzzella remembers the feeling of a dream becoming a reality. It was late 2016 and a realtor was showing her and her brother, Antonino, around the former Roth’s Flowers at 2114 Tilghman St. Its previous owner, Dr. Marjorie Roth, had decided to sell the property in 2015. Prior to the sale, the flower shop had been a family business for almost 80 years. “We fell in love with the greenhouse,” Pitruzzella says. “We had been looking for a place for two years. But the first walk we did through here … there was an ease in your soul. You know when you feel good about something?” Standing in the northwest corner of the building on that cold day, under a leaking roof and amidst the spiders, Pitruzzella knew she had found the right place. Her longtime friend, Heidi Borelli, also shared a connection to
IN THIS ISSUE 1 New to the Neighborhood 2 News to Use- Festivals 3 Focus on the Arts 7 School News
7 City News 8 Helping Others- Kiwanis 9 St. Patrick’s Day Information 17 Shop Local 18 Ron’s Ramblings
the property. “When I was nineteen and I moved here, I used to come here and tell Mrs. Roth I was going to open up a restaurant someday,” Borelli says. “There are a few really great spots here in the West End that we all love going to, that we all know, but there just aren’t enough,” Borelli says. “There was a lot of focus downtown and in Bethlehem and Easton. My husband went to [Muhlenberg Elementary]; he went to Muhlenberg College. My children are at Allen and at Trexler. This is our community,” Borelli says. Salvatrice and Antonino purchased the property and, after two years of renovations, opened Greenhouse Enoteca in early February 2019. The bones of Roth’s Flowers remain. “We wanted to maintain the integrity of the natural structure,” Borelli says. That’s why they kept the wrought iron trellises, the exterior glass, and the namesake greenhouse, which sits off the dining room. But the meat of Greenhouse Enoteca is a new design concept that has modernized and revitalized the space. A long bar lines the back wall. A brand-new, bright-red, custom Kuma Forni pizza oven draws attention to the far corner. Tables
19 For the Birds 20 Students of Note 21 Medical Program 22 City News 23 Where Is It? 23 Important Numbers SPRING 2019 WEST
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