Classic Italian Cuisine On The Menu At Centanni Café

‘Centanni’ means 100 years in Italian, and Centanni Café owner Fidel Alvarez hopes to reach that many years at his new location in Wellington’s Village Walk community.

The restaurant has been at the location just off Lyons Road approximately one year after holding its grand opening in December 2016. Alvarez has been overjoyed with the response he has received from the community he is now immediately serving.

Centanni Café is new to the residential community, but it has been in the western communities for more than a decade, originally located on State Road 7 in Royal Palm Beach. While the restaurant is particularly convenient for Village Walk residents, it is open to the greater Wellington community as well.

Centanni offers classic Italian cuisine. For a restaurant that calls itself a café, it boasts a sizable menu with many options to choose from. If you were to ask Alvarez what he would recommend for your first time at the café, he’d probably suggest the salmon piccata served with quinoa. “This dish is a sauté with white wine and lemon, a touch of butter and capers,” Alvarez said. “In my picatta, I like to put a little roasted pepper, just because of the color. With food, you’ve got to catch the eye, too. It’s not just flavor, but also the colors.”

Alvarez only recently began using quinoa as a main side option.

“I wasn’t even familiar with it, but my chef, he is from Peru, and this comes from Peru, so he was knowledgeable of it,” Alvarez said. “So, I told him, ‘Let’s see how the customers react,’ and it was very good. It’s different, and it tastes good. Quinoa is something that you can put on salads and as a side dish. You can do a lot with it.”

One amazing homemade item found at Centanni is Alvarez’s fresh mozzarella, which is served on the Centanni salad and more.

“My fresh mozzarella, I put some salt in the water when I’m making it, so that adds flavor, not really salty, but you just add a little flavor,” Alvarez said. “It’s a unique flavor. You don’t need any added salt, and you don’t need any dressing to have that mozzarella, because it already has flavor in it.”

The menu offers many Italian favorites, including pizza, pasta dishes, entrees such as chicken marsala, sub sandwiches and more. Centanni also offers catering services.

“The advantage that I have is that the menu is already established. People already know me,” Alvarez said. “So, when they found out I was coming here, there was a lot of excitement in the community.”

Alvarez said some people have been enthusiastic about the café in the gated community, to the point that he said his business has driven in new homeowners to Village Walk.

“The atmosphere, it feels like you are on vacation,” Alvarez said. “The neighbors feel like they are on vacation. They come home. They come here. They eat. They go to the pool. It feels like a vacation resort.”

Alvarez began his career in the restaurant business in high school. He had a decade of experience by the time he was out of college, and he found himself managing a network of restaurants in New Jersey, where he was raised.

Born in El Salvador, Alvarez grew into the industry. It wasn’t something he knew would be his life’s work at a young age.

“I worked for the guy for 10 years. I went through high school, through college, working in this mom-and-pop pizzeria, so I learned a lot from them,” Alvarez said.

That experience at the pizzeria is what propelled Alvarez into his role in restaurant management, impressing his future business partner. Alvarez helped manage five different restaurants in New Jersey. But, at the height of it all, he was at a different restaurant every day.

“I got tired of that, so I left and came to Florida, because every time we came here on vacation, it was nice. My wife loved it, and I started to like it,” Alvarez said.  “So, we moved here.”

Centanni Café is open for lunch and dinner, but you can still find some breakfast items at the café during lunch hours.

“This [is a place] you can come for lunch, or dinner, or just a little snack,” he said.

Nowadays, Alvarez enjoys his life managing the café for his customers.

“I want to thank the community here at Village Walk for giving me the opportunity to serve them, and also giving me the opportunity to serve the people outside the community who already know me,” Alvarez said. “So far, I think, that has been the key, because a lot of other cafés have been here, but none of them have made it. I think the combination is knowing people’s names and bringing in people from outside. I think that helps a lot.”

Centanni Café is located in the Village Walk community at 2540 Village Walk Circle. For more information, call (561) 642-8700 or visit www.centannicafe.com.