Wine & Dine at CUCINA enoteca NOW

Well, soon...CUCINA enoteca, the Urban Kitchen Group's new Del Mar restaurant, softly swings open their doors tonight for friends and family and officially opens to the public on Sunday.

The interior of the 7,000-square-foot restaurant, curated by owner Tracy Borkum, is full of vintage treasures, repurposed materials and custom creations with a mix of communal and more intimate seating. Upstairs, there's a newly built open-air lounge complete with its own cocktail bar; the second level deck will also be home to a kitchen garden.

Borkum is off and running with her "modern Italian kitchen-meets-rustic-farmhouse" concept; a decade-long plan aims to launch one CUCINA a year in still-to-be-indentified cities across the country.

A core element is their "restaurant to retail" experience, which includes with a wine shop in each eatery; other featured beverages include a good selection of Italian craft beer and a new menu of aperitivo, pre-meal primers that include campari, cynar and cardamaro, a Moscato wine infused with cardoons.

Executive chef Joe Magnanelli developed the menu, which is reminiscent of CUCINA urbana's , but Del Mar's chef de cuisine, Andrew Bachelier, has reign over a third of the menu to put his own stamp on the cuisine.

CUCINA Enoteca Del Mar Dinner Menu