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We decided to take our own advice, so Saturday found us up at Bella Cosa, sipping olive oils and puckering at salts. While there, we had the opportunity to chat with Jared and Bronwyn Carpenter, the new owners.

We found out that Jared and a chef named Alex Pitt worked together in the kitchen at the Rainier Club (Alex as sous chef, Jared as…emm…another kind of chef…Wallyhood doesn’t always take notes). One night, perhaps with some encouragement from a bottle of wine, they hatched the idea of opening up a fine dining restaurant of their own. Unlike most ideas so hatched, it still seemed brilliant in the light of day, and so a search was undertaken for a spot.

The plan now is to install a full professional kitchen, convert the front deli counter into a beer and wine bar at night (but still use it as a deli counter during the day) and serve full lunch and dinner in addition to fine foods to go. They even plan to bake their own bread and cure their own meats (“the Salumi of Wallingford” is the aspiration). We can attest to their love food, as they walked us through their various meats with the passion of a vinophile.

But there’s many a slip twixt the cup and the lip, as they say. There are still permits to apply for, contractors to hire, and bonks on the head to recover from (that was Alex that took a crack in the noggin from a meth-head last week).

Still, do not stand between a chef and his dream. You’ll likely to end up in the sauce.