Two Eugene brothers are racing to open an Italian restaurant in the former Papa’s Soul Food Kitchen and BBQ location in the Whiteaker neighborhood. Sean and Samuel Verkler plan to open Bari Trattoria in the Blair Boulevard building that housed Papa’s Soul Food for more than a decade, according to an Oregon Liquor Control Commission Application. 

Papa’s closed in November. It had started as a food cart in 2002 before expanding into a restaurant that gathered a huge local following, with lines of customers often winding out the door. The Verkler brothers and Aaron Verkler and Domenica Stewart bought the 90-year-old building from Papa’s Soul Food owner Deb Lee in November for $376,000, a deed filed in Lane County shows.