The Kitchen
Chef Tivona
Executive Chef & Founder
Chef Tivona grew up between two worlds — the red-sauce kitchens of his Italian-American family in New York and the sun-drenched trattorias of Calabria where his grandparents were born. That dual inheritance is the soul of Urban Italia.
After training under Michelin-starred chefs in New York and Rome, he returned to Dallas with a singular vision: to cook the food he actually grew up eating. Not a museum piece of Italian cuisine, but a living, breathing Italia-Merica table — hand-rolled pasta, wood-fired pizza, and Sunday gravy that simmers for six hours.
Every dish at Urban Italia is a conversation between the old country and the new. The ingredients are sourced locally when possible, the techniques are classical, and the spirit is unapologetically American-Italian.
"We cook the food we grew up eating. Nothing more, nothing less."
The Philosophy
Italia-Merica, From Scratch
Handmade Pasta
Every strand of pasta is rolled by hand each morning using semolina flour and eggs from local farms. No shortcuts, no shortcuts.
Wood-Fired Pizza
Our Neapolitan-style dough ferments for 72 hours before meeting the 900°F wood-burning oven. The char, the chew, the blistered crust — that's the goal.
Sunday Gravy
The Sunday gravy starts at 6 AM. Pork ribs, meatballs, sausage, and San Marzano tomatoes slow-cooked until the whole kitchen smells like a Brooklyn Sunday.
Local Sourcing
We partner with Texas farms for produce, dairy, and proteins. Italian soul, Texas ingredients — that's the Italia-Merica way.