For frequenters of downtown Italian favorite Bonu Taverna, there is a new woman in their life. She can be seen from the streets as you pass by, her dark eyes peering through the windows as shadows dance across her face. While she doesn’t formally have a title, the team that helped bring her to life has unofficially christened her with a perfectly punny nickname: Bonu Lisa.
Painted by prolific St. Pete artist and muralist Johnny Vitale – of The Vitale Bros. fame – “Bonu Lisa” is the centerpiece of the downtown restaurant’s expansion, and she is a fitting work of art for the new venue. While the new space is a natural expansion of the existing Bonu restaurant (taking over the next-door area at 8 6th Street North, most recently a tattoo shop), it feels and in many ways even operates as its own venue.
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Senza Fine is painted over the doors, roughly translated from Italian as forever, or more literally, without end. It’s an appropriate title (more on that later), and its space brings two big boons to the popular restaurant that it didn’t have before: a multimedia lounge, and a sizable events area.
The adults-only room is a mix of the delicious dining Bonu is known for, along with couches and a lounge area, a live DJ booth, a satellite bar, and of course, Bonu Lisa looking over it all. On many nights, the expansion will act as an extension of the dining room, offering more seating areas, as well as a place to relax with drinks before or after a meal (reservations are now available for four or more, by the way). It also provides a much needed event space for business gatherings, wedding rehearsals, company outings, and what we expect will be a regular number of specialty events and parties hosted by Bonu.
“It’s a very local block, and there was a call for a lounge around this block,” co-owner Mia Maccarrone said. “There is energy here. The idea is you can eat, listen to music, and if your body tells you to start moving, then stand up and dance.”
“We try to create this kind of Parisian, European feeling,” fellow co-owner Antonio Martucci elaborated. “When people finish dinner, if they don’t want to go out downtown, they come in here.”
Bonu expansion showcases collaboration and art
One of my favorite things about Bonu is the true family vibe it exudes. More times than not, at least one or two (and sometimes all) of the owners are standing outside the door greeting people and helping them find tables. Later, when someone stops by a table to check on you, it’s often one of those same owners, either Mia or Antonio, or Mario Maccarrone or Luca Martucci. Like so many of St. Pete’s best spots, they are local owners who are present, visible, and invested not just in the restaurant, but in the community.
So when they got the opportunity to take over what is now the Senza Fine space, they made sure it had a St. Pete flair and represented their collaborative approach to all things. Their first call was to Mathias Mey, the owner of St. Pete-based Humble & Kind Building Contractors who did all of the contracting work on Bonu’s original space. That Mey can be found dining at Bonu more weekends than not is a testament to the original work done, as well as the relationship that was created (and the great food from the kitchen – shoutout to chef Luca Bizzari).
Mey had known for some time that Bonu would expand if the opportunity came, so when he first heard the news that Bonu was getting the vacant space, he knew he had work ahead of him. In an impressive feat, from the first day he got inside the new space to its opening in January, the entire process hardly took one month, a miracle in that industry.
“I loved the vision, and there were so many things that just went right. And that never happens in construction. This was something special,” he said as he looked around at the finished product. “This whole space was meant to be. It has its own soul, I think.”
Meanwhile, as Humble & Kind were seeing to the floors, ceiling, lights, doors, bathroom and three of the walls, it was the fourth wall that was ready for an even more individual touch. St. Pete artist Leo Gomez painted the original “Ciao!” mural inside Bonu’s bar area, and it was he who recommended one of the most-loved artists in St. Pete for this project: Johnny Vitale.
After meeting with the Bonu team – and being given complete creative freedom, beyond the general idea of a beautiful face filling the wall – Vitale got to work on what he called an “inventive” and even “experimental” artistic process. Pulling inspiration from the art and architecture of Marrakech and Tulum, Vitale created a three-dimensional style he now refers to as “graffiti fresco,” mixing paint and plaster with street art techniques.
The result is a space that looks like it has been there for years, and a painting that literally bursts from the wall in some parts, a rustic and industrial piece brimming with personality. Combined with the changing lights Mey’s team installed, Bonu Lisa appears to change mood throughout the day and night, and much like her namesake, often looks as if she has a secret that only she knows.
By using plaster and allowing the paint to dry at its own speed in different areas, the wall is “intentionally not perfect,” a layered creation that gives texture and life to the space.
“We sort of invented this as we went,” Vitale explained. “It was a really fun project. After doing this, I want to do pieces of art with this technique. It has more substance to it than regular paint.”
Bonu’s inspiration is without end
Located at No. 8 6th Street North, the expanded new space for Bonu had some perhaps cosmic ties. Co-owners Mario and Mia Maccarone each have the same tattoo, an infinity symbol that is intentionally also a sideways numeral 8. Both of their sons were born on May 8th – years apart – so they adopted the number and symbol as a totem of their own and a symbol of family.
It’s from that story and the address that Vitale and Bonu incorporated the number into the new space. Several eights can be seen on the wall beside “Bonu Lisa,” and all involved parties agree that no matter what privacy shades ever need to be put in place for private events, the sliver of window above the door that holds the street number 8 will aways be open for light to shine in.
“As the sun sets, the shadow of the 8 over the door moves across the wall like a clock,” Vitale said. “It’s like it tells you the time, but it’s always 8 o’clock.”
8 o’clock, without end. And after nearly two years of good times at Bonu, there is no end in sight for the restaurant that welcomes in crowds every day.
“This would not have been possible without all of us contributing,” Mia said. “It was an effortless project.”
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