Zio opens door to Italian fare at Myers Park location

Jim Consol is bringing the tastes of central Italy -- combined with a hint of upstate New York -- to Myers Park with the opening of Zio.

"When I came to Charlotte I could see it was a great restaurant town because people here love to go out and eat with friends and family," says Consol, who owns and operates Zio with his wife, Teri.

The restaurant opened last month at 116 Middleton Drive in the space formerly occupied by Billy Reid's and the Five Steps Down Pub & Grill.

Consol invested about $300,000 into the 3,000-square-foot space, which seats 80.

Zio, the Italian word for "uncle," serves up authentic Italian recipes. Some hail from the Abruzzo province of central Italy, such as traditional thin-crust pizza, spaghetti arribbiatta and homemade pasta with slow-cooked meat sauce.

The restaurant is named in honor of Consol's late Uncle Adolph "Duff" Consol (formerly Consilvio) who established Duff's restaurant and tavern five decades ago in the Endicott area of upstate New York. Today, Duff's has been renamed Consol's and is still in business.

"We have customers in our upstate New York restaurant that come by two or three times a week," Consol says. "It has that kind of affordability and staying power."

Consol hopes to introduce that affordability at Zio's, where prices for entrees range from $5.95 to $16.95. Consol says the need for a mid-priced Italian restaurant is another factor that brought him to Charlotte -- a city where the best Italian food is often high-end in presentation and price, he says. "That's created a hole in the market big enough to drive a salami truck through," Consol says.

Zio's hours are 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 5 to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday. The restaurant also includes a full bar serving 25 Italian and California wines and 12 domestic, imported and micro- brewed beers.

News & notes The Nichols Co. of Charlotte recently signed Goodwill Computer Works at Shops at Freedom. A division of Goodwill Industries of the Southern Piedmont Inc., the company will take 4,500 square feet at the center. Goodwill Computer reconditions computers and resells them.

There are five spaces left in the center, where lease rates range from $5 to $15 per square foot. Brokers Josh Beaver and Hampton Wade of The Nichols Co. represented the landlord, Admall Village Limited Partnership. Jim Walsh of Coldwell Banker Commercial-MECA represented Goodwill.