Roman Trattoria Rises in Bankers Hill

Replacing the Royal Stone Restaurant & Wine Bar, the Bankers Hill bistro that shuttered in September, is a new Italian restaurant called Mia Trattoria. Named after owner Sergio Torrisi’s one-year-old daughter, the eatery is his first stateside restaurant. Torrisi and his father Ivan each have over two decades of industry experience in Rome, Italy, where they run Il Tartarughino, a popular fine dining restaurant and piano bar in the city center, and La Casetta restaurant in the beachside neighborhood of Ostia.

Torrisi landed in San Diego five years ago, and since then has worked in management positions at several top properties including the Hyatt Indian Wells, the James Beard Award-winning Bartolotta, an Italian seafood restaurant at Wynn Las Vegas, and The Belvedere, the signature restaurant at The Peninsula Beverly Hills.

Hoping to bring a bit of Rome to Bankers Hill, Mia Trattoria is now serving a lunch and dinner menu that features seafood salad, grilled octopus and saffron risotto plus traditional pastas, including the classic Roman rigatoni all'amatriciana made with guanciale, or cured pork jowl, and tonnarelli a cacio e pepe, a fresh pasta resembling square spaghetti dressed with pecorino cheese and cracked black pepper. The wine list is a mix of Italian and Californian varietals.