Dolce Owners To Open ‘Lombardi’s’ Restaurant on Elm Street

The owners of a popular Italian café in downtown New Canaan are planning to open a new restaurant down the street.

Cannoli at Dolce on Elm Street.

Andrea Lombardi, owner of Dolce on Elm Street, is planning to open “Lombardi’s” restaurant one block away at 32 Elm St., according to plans filed with the New Canaan Building Department. 

“Andrea’s vision for space is sleek, acoustically tuned with imaginative lighting plans,” according to a letter of intent that forms part of the filing.

The space recently had been occupied by an art gallery that moved within downtown New Canaan.

According to floor plans, Lombardi’s will have a bar with 12 stools and 14 two-top tables on the first floor, with six four-top tables and a service bar on the second floor.

Panini at Dolce Italian Café on Elm Street.

Norwalk-based Mark Demmerle Architecture & Building Services is the contractor on the fitout, according to the filings.

Lombardi, a native of Italy who moved to the United States as a teenager, opened Dolce in the summer of 2019. It’s become a wildly popular spot for coffee, breakfast, lunch and dinner. “Who Knew?” columnist Laura Ault noted the café in an installment on “New Canaan Life Hacks” last summer, saying, “Get a B-E-C or a fantastic Portuguese muffin sandwich from Dolcé and tend to your morning emails while greeting the seemingly incessant parade of Labradoodles and their humans patrolling the downtown sidewalks.”