Monte Vista is getting a new Italian-inspired restaurant in the new year when Carlucci’s opens in the short-lived home of Luz Mia Restaurante off McCullough Avenue. With a projected opening in mid-January, Carlucci’s will serve lunch and dinner, with a mix of handmade pastas, soups, salads and sandwiches, said Clay Bergman, who co-owns the restaurant with chef Joe Brango. 

Bergman characterized the menu as Italian with heavy American influences: “The kind of Italian food that Italians invented when they came to America.” Brango, who has lived in Italy and worked as an Italian chef, most recently in Maryland, will run the kitchen at Carlucci’s, Bergman said.