Sfuzzi restaurant expanding to Irving in June

Uptown restaurant to get new sibling near the Irving Convention Center.

IRVING — A second branch of Sfuzzi, the glossy Italian chain revived by restaurateur Robert Colombo, will open in Irving, in the space that was once the doomed Republic Las Colinas/Las Colinas Prime.

Colombo says he's hoping for a June opening date.

"It's a fabulous site from a demographic perspective -- it'll have tremendous growth with the new Irving Convention Center and Concert Hall, and there's not a lot of competition in the area for upscale Italian," Colombo says.

The Irving branch won't have quite the same glitzy nightlife component as the Uptown branch.

"It'll be a different model from Uptown in terms of strong during lunch, and more corporate involvement," he says. "There'll be a lot of similarities in the decor but it has a lot bigger space and it'll also have some unique elements, including more private dining rooms for corporate events."

Colombo is high on Sfuzzi's new corporate chef, Michael Weinstein, formerly of Al Biernat's.

"He's a real find for us and has done so far an extraordinary job of adding creativity -- working on food trucks and a whole bunch of fun things," Colombo says. "Al's loss is our gain."

runDMC, anonymous:

I'm stunned. Haven't been in several weeks but last time no one was there and the food was pure out gag. Seriously, scarily dreadful. Now we get another one...wow.