Bardea Steak won’t be your typical steakhouse with a cookie-cutter menu of beef cuts. Instead, owners Scott Stein and Chef Antimo DiMeo are going to great lengths to build an Italian-inspired “meat kingdom” with rare slabs from the finest cuts of beef in the world. Stein and DiMeo aim to open Bardea Steak at 608 Market St. in Wilmington, DE sometime in February/March.
“We don’t want to get caught up in the steakhouse formula. We love steakhouses. It just seems that you see the same steakhouse formula. The menu is very comparable,” Stein told What Now Philadelphia. “We’re doing our interpretive take on an Italian-style steakhouse. Antimo really took his time to take this to another level and pushed himself to bring some extraordinary pieces of meat to the menu. We’ll have fun pushing the envelope.”
Bardea Steak will serve exclusive cuts of beef, including Chianina, a white cow breed that originated from Italy and is used to make the famous Florentine dish Bistecca Alla Fiorentina, Belgian Blue, and Australian Wagyu. Stein says Bardea Steak will be one of the only restaurants on the East Coast that serves Chianina. Their beef will be sourced directly from farms to avoid supply issues. The rest of the menu will include creative modern Italian fare using fresh ingredients from Delaware Valley farms and purveyors similar to dishes served at Bardea’s Steak’s sister restaurant, Bardea Food & Drink at 620 N. Market St. Stein and DiMeo also own Pizzeria Bardea at 111 W. 10th St.
The 5,000 sq. ft. steakhouse, designed by Stokes Architecture + Design, will cook its meat in an open-hearth oven, which will serve as a focal point in the 70-seat main dining room along with the restaurant’s fireplace made from steel and emerald-colored tile. The horseshoe-shaped bar will seat another 10, while a four-seasons sunroom space will have seating for 30 and be decorated with porcelain mosaic tile flooring, skylights, and bifold windows. This area will also have a small bar primarily used for service.
The four-season space will overlook an outdoor area that will be turned into Bardea Garden. The space was transformed from a parking lot that separated Bardea Steak and Bardea Food & Drink into an outdoor lounge café, which will open in the summer of 2022. Bardea Garden, which will seat about 80 and have its own bar, will be filled with lush greenery, cozy fire pits, and soothing water features under awnings to create a covered al fresco dining experience that will be open into the coolers months as long as the weather permits.
“Bardea Garden is going to be a mixture of both restaurants that will feature highlights from both menus,” said Stein. “It’ll be a causal cafe-ish style type of place perfect for having a drink while waiting for a table in one of our other restaurants or a nice place to chill outside and enjoy a cocktail.”
Stay tuned for news on the family of Bardea restaurants at www.bardeawilmington.com.
