It’s back: Famed Valentino Cucina Italiana to be reborn as Val+tino in Fort Lauderdale in January

Guess who’s back? In a massive flex of Fort Lauderdale culinary muscle, chef Giovanni Rocchio will reopen his celebrated modern Italian restaurant, Valentino Cucina Italiana, at its old perch south of the New River under a new streamlined name, menu and makeover: Val+tino.

Expected to debut on Jan. 2, the 3,500-square-foot eatery will be side-by-side neighbors in the 620 S. Federal Highway building with another Fort Lauderdale icon, Canyon.

Val+tino is a partnership between Rocchio and restaurateur Mike Linder (South Bar & Kitchen, Jet Runway Café), whose SFL Hospitality Group has quietly bitten off a sizable restaurant empire across Broward County, including Canyon. Val+tino’s arrival effectively halves the existing dining room at Canyon, which has remained open during the transformation.

In the kitchen at Val+tino will be a familiar sight for longtime Fort Lauderdale diners: Rocchio, an old-school pasta maestro, presiding over a staff of polished pros, folding and stuffing tagliatelle, strozzapretti and casoncelli by hand. Even the personnel should look familiar: About 75 percent of Valentino’s original staff will return to Val+tino, Linder says.

He is careful to not brand Val+tino as a revival of Valentino Cucina Italiana, which closed in 2020 after 13 years, but rather a fine-dining kitchen “taken to the next level” with fresh Mediterranean touches.

“It’s Valentino 2.0,” says Linder, who grew up in Fort Lauderdale and also reimagined Canyon’s menu and vibe in 2022. “Giovanni won’t have to worry about anything except being in the kitchen, doing the best he can.”

Rocchio prefers a different metaphor to describe Val+tino’s imminent return. “It’s like Michael Jordan retired to play baseball and then came back to the NBA,” he says. “We still have something to prove, and the reason to come back is to do better. And I think, without the extra stress on my shoulders, the food will be better.”

The “stress” Rocchio references came from being a chef while also owning Valentino, which he helmed from 2006 to 2019 until burnout and fatigue set in, prompting him to call it quits. (Valentino plodded ahead without Rocchio for about another nine months before its eventual demise.)

Under the new Val+tino partnership, Rocchio won’t be owner, instead heading the kitchen alongside new chef de cuisine Jake Abbott, formerly sous chef at New York’s Michelin two-star Gabriel Kreuther, and pastry chef Carlos Salgado. Diners stand a decent chance of spotting Rocchio, Abbott and Salgado tinkering in the kitchen until opening day next month.

During the pandemic, Rocchio, 57, had begun plotting an unrelated members-only restaurant, shopping the idea to other big Fort Lauderdale restaurateurs. When a mutual friend connected the chef with Linder this summer, the latter broached the idea of a new Valentino in its old spot, he recalls.

At first, Rocchio demurred — “It was like going back to an old girlfriend.” But Linder was persuasive, as well as “young and motivated, and it was impressive,” Rocchio says. “He’s a smart businessman. He hires well and takes care of his people.

“And it was always kind of sad what happened to [the old Valentino],” he adds. “Its demise wasn’t expected. That name was in my family since my dad had his restaurant.”

His father, Tony Rocchio, opened the first Valentino in Lauderhill in 1972 before relocating it to Plantation in the ’80s, and Giovanni Rocchio worked there until his father’s retirement in 2000. After cutting his teeth in New York (at Fiamma, Picholine), he returned to South Florida, opening Valentino Cucina Italiana in 2006 out of an ex-tire shop on South Federal. Valentino kept racking up acclaim when it moved into a bigger location at 620 S. Federal Highway in 2012, including a rare four-star review by the South Florida Sun Sentinel in 2019.

The new Val+tino, Linder adds, represents a major facelift for the fine-dining temple, boasting new Art Deco flourishes, about 110 seats and an abstract color palette of sage green, light pink and white painted on the exterior by muralist Orla Ananda. The reconfigured layout now includes a smaller 3,500-square-foot Canyon and Rio’s Tequila Bar on the east side, and a 3,500-square-foot Val+tino to the west.

Along with a streamlined name comes a slimmer pasta menu of six dishes (price range: $24-$36), including cavatelli osso buco with porcini and ricotta salata; butternut squash tortelli with brown butter and sage; and old favorites like tagliatelle bolognese with parsley. Of course, more acclaimed dishes — like agnolotti carbonara with fresh pasta, pancetta, farm egg and black pepper — would return later in the season, Rocchio says, as will Sunday dinners.

“People just have to be patient,” he says. “We’re not showing all the tricks in the first month. We’ll slowly pull the rabbit out.”

Not that there won’t be showstoppers on opening day. These include Iberico paleta (ham shoulder) with pillowy fried dough (gnocco fritto), pecorino and olive oil, along with Royal Osetra caviar and housemade stracciatella. For appetizers ($18-$28), there will be amberjack plated with hearts of palm, gooseberry and kohlrabi, along with huckleberry foie gras, black truffle scallops and beef tartare with capers.

Entrees ($36-$65) include a New York strip dry-aged in-house (there are new meat lockers); dry-aged duck breast with carrot, aged soy and turnips; and lane snapper with artichoke, clams and garlic. Many of those dishes reappear in a five-course tasting menu ($129) a table can share along with cheese, preserved fruit, raw honey and mignardises, or bite-size desserts.

“Changed regularly, the five-course tasting menu highlights seasonal ingredients and will give guests the opportunity to try something new every time they visit,” Abbott says in a statement.

An extensive rare wine list will be overseen by Stefan Cole, a veteran sommelier who worked at the original Valentino. And for dessert, there will be gianduja gelato with hazelnut, dark chocolate and caramel, as well as a dish called Chartreuse, a puff pastry with mascarpone and milk chocolate gelato; and pecan pie with poached pear sorbet.

“It’s not simple or approachable, but it’s an opportunity for people to have food they’ve never had before,” Linder says. “It’s a real old-school, New York style of cooking, not just lasagna or chicken parmesan — although we’ll have those on special, too.”

For springtime fare, Rocchio’s already experimenting with a “venison and wild boar seven-meat ragu that’s going to be even better than my Bolognese,” he says.

Rocchio doesn’t rule out the idea of a Valentino expansion, and he’s in talks for future locations in California and Washington, D.C. For now, though, he’s happy at his old Rio Vista stomping grounds.

“To me, we’re right where we belong,” Rocchio says. “I always liked being there off Las Olas, but not on Las Olas, separate from everyone. It’s a destination, not a tourist place.”

Val+tino is expected to open Jan. 2 at 620 S. Federal Highway, Fort Lauderdale. Call 954-451-1200 or go to Valandtino.com.