Mastermind behind Mateo plans new Italian restaurant

“Talking, coming up with a name – that’s how you come up with its true identity,” Matt says.

It will fill one of the last remaining food holes the Bull City possesses by bringing cucina Italiana autentica to dinner and Sunday brunch. Though at this point in Durham’s restaurant history the following should go without saying, its menu will utilize as many local and seasonal ingredients as possible and will highlight the foods Josh was cradled by in his Italian family. It was his mother, Aunt Kay and grandmother who imparted a passion for cooking in the first place, so it made sense to honor them.  

“Growing up in an Italian family, every Sunday was spent eating and cooking,” Josh says. “My garage growing up as a kid was a full-scale catering kitchen that my family would also use on holidays and for cookouts.”  

Josh has been heading up the kitchen at Mateo since its opening in 2012, but will take the helm at Mothers & Sons, leaving chef Nate Garyantes to fill his comfy, clog-shaped shoes. Patrons can expect a range of traditional dishes that go beyond spaghetti and meatballs – perhaps a nettle linguini with Core Sound clams, pancetta and bread crumbs. Or a fava bean agnolotti with lamb cheeks, mint-pistachio pesto and pecorino.  

There will be pasta in many forms, the chefs assure, and they will be done right, be they extruded, hand-rolled or hand-formed – some made with house-milled ours. Expect to leave with your body and soul feeling satiated.  

“I want our guests to leave with the same full and cared for feeling that everyone who came to my family’s house did,” Josh says.