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Lots of work has been happening in the space since I first broke the news last October that James Beard Award-winning chef and 1010 Bridge Restaurant owner Paul Smith was opening a new Italian restaurant inside the building that formerly housed Bridge Road Bistro.

The new restaurant’s owners include Smith and his wife, Carrie, along with Steven and Trey Frame, his business partners at  at the Shawnee Sports Complex.

Smith led me on a walk-through of the space last week.

A similar layout that’s been reimagined

Although the layout at Paulie’s is similar to how Bridge Road Bistro was set up — bar in the front, dining room in the middle, kitchen in the back — the look, feel and vibe of the place has been remodeled into something fresh and new.

The space was largely gutted and rebuilt inside with new floors, walls, furniture, lighting, décor, wine racks and more — including a new stylish bar with lush brown leather chairs and a lounge area up front featuring oversized leather chairs and a classic Italian Ducati motorcycle perched against one wall.

New high-top tables fill the space alongside the bar, with a low dividing wall featuring a painted glass panel separating the bar and main dining areas. Those areas have been reimagined, featuring new soft lighting, warm colors and several decorative touches.

The old booths in Bridge Road Bistro’s dining room have been removed, with the wood from them used to build new bench seating that runs the length of the restaurant on one side. Beautiful new custom-crafted wooden tables and black-and-white Italian-style chairs now fill the main dining area in the middle of the room.

New stained-glass accents and old family photos and pictures of famous Italian people and places adorn the walls, some creatively manipulated to include the Paulie’s logo.

A small private dining room still exists on the side but has been redone with wine racks covering the walls and new high-tech AV capabilities for hosting business dinners and meetings.

You’ll still see an open kitchen in the back, but it’s now shiny and new with the former adjacent chef’s table facing it replaced with a dining room-facing counter where servers will put the finishing touches on dishes — scraping cheese from a giant wheel, drizzling olive oil and such — before bringing them to your table.

An outdoor patio that was built during COVID but never used at the previous restaurant has been spruced up with a decorative painted fence, custom-built wooden planters and new tables ready to welcome guests for alfresco food and cocktails.

Paulie’s Parlor Room behind the restaurant (formerly the Walnut Room) was redecorated and has been hosting private receptions, wedding dinners and more for the past few months at 954 Walnut Road.

“It’s been nice showing off small parts of the new restaurant for those groups,� Smith said, “but we’re really excited to finally open our doors to the public soon.�

Food and drinks rooted in Italian tradition

Now that you have a sense of the layout, let’s get to the plan for food and drinks.

The new bar now includes bright red painted taps that will serve Italian classics like Prosecco wine and . Paulie's will serve an Aperol Spritz, made with Prosecco, Aperol and a splash of club soda with a slice of orange. It's a traditional, popular Italian cocktail, especially during the summer months.

An old-fashioned hand-cranked martini shaker has been mounted on the bar, representing Paulie’s martini-focused cocktail selections, which will be accompanied by Italian beers — including  — and wines.

“Those drinks will pair nicely with a menu full of authentic old-world Italian flavors from treasured family recipes,� Smith said.

Paulie’s is named after one of the chef’s childhood nicknames and will pay homage to his family’s rich Italian heritage — specifically to his grandfather, Joe Fish, who taught him how to cook as a young boy.

The restaurant will make “Sunday ribbons,� which is his family’s 10-hour tomato gravy that most of us know as a deeply flavored tomato sauce for pasta that simmers on the stove all day until dinner time.

“We’ll have fire-roasted pizzas hot out of a new Woodstone oven that came from Chicago, a 20-hour lasagna Bolognese, flounder Puttanesca [a Naples-born dish typically flavored with tomatoes, olives, capers, anchovies, garlic, pepperoncino, extra-virgin olive oil and salt] and a Paulie’s cut steak with fried artichokes, potatoes and Calabrian [pepper] honey-glazed carrots,� he said.

“You can start your meal with some fried anchovy-stuffed olives with Marcona almonds or oysters that are flash-heated in the pizza oven and finished with spicy Calabrian butter. And you can end the evening with a nice chocolate budino [a traditional Italian cream dessert] with espresso caramel or Panettone [an Italian fruit-and-nut butter cake] bread pudding.�

 A decades-long dream comes to fruition

Those are just a few of the items Smith said you can expect to enjoy with the same attentive service his 1010 Bridge Restaurant is known for just a few doors down the street on Bridge Road.

Opening a new restaurant is always hard, he said, but Paulie’s has been hiring and training its new staff for months before opening. He said he hopes that’s a difference his customers notice, because taking good care of guests is paramount to his beliefs.

He said crews have done a great job transforming the space into a place that will feel warm and welcoming.

“That’s what I grew up with — families making memories while enjoying a great meal together. So that’s exactly what we want this new place to be,� he said.

“I’m really excited, but also a little nervous. I’m not usually like that, but this is a bigger restaurant, and we’ve put so much time and money into it. It’s a little scary, I’m not going to lie. But we’ve put our heart and soul into this place and we’re ready to do this.�

And in his trademark “a rising tide raises all boats� fashion, he also believes there’s room for Paulie’s to succeed in Charleston in addition to — and not instead of — other local Italian restaurants.

“We’re thrilled with being around for 100 years, doing so well and now under new management," he said. "I think people here are really embracing our Appalachian Italian heritage.�