Billy Grise and Mitch Arens, the co-owners of Carmelo’s in Covington, are opening an American chop house in Fort Wright this winter.
The restaurant will open at 20 Kyles Lane, in the building a Frisch’s Big Boy occupied until it moved to Orphanage Road in August. Both restaurants operate under Something Underground Hospitality, the group the two men founded.
The pair opened Carmelo’s on Madison Avenue in November 2024. USA Today readers voted it the No. 2 best new restaurant in the United States in January, and WCPO ranked it fifth among Greater Cincinnati’s 2024 openings.
“Building restaurants for the people and community around us is what we love doing,” Grise said. “We’re channeling old-school hospitality in a historic building, and giving the people of Fort Wright a place to escape to again.”
Grise named Carmelo’s for his great-grandfather Carmelo Caserta, a Sicilian immigrant who ran a neighborhood tavern and grocery. Arens, the chef and co-owner, founded the private chef company Southernly and has worked in kitchens for more than 20 years.
“I grew up in a large family in Northern Kentucky. For me dinner was a table full of food and a room filled with everyone I love,” Arens said. “That’s what we want to re-create here. Comfort food you recognize before you taste it, that hopefully brings back memories of the potlucks, the cookouts, and family celebrations so many of us experienced during our childhood.”
The restaurant will seat 160, with an outdoor patio.
Grise and Arens are developing the name and design, which will draw on the history of Dixie Highway. The stretch through Fort Wright was once known as the Gourmet Strip for the restaurants that lined it.