La Pecora Bianca to Open First Florida Restaurant in Coral Gables

• La Pecora Bianca  is opening its first Florida location at the Shops at Merrick Park this fall.
• The restaurant takes over 360 San Lorenzo Ave., Ste. 1430, the former home of Italian spot Villagio.
• Founder Mark Barak has built the brand around six New York locations and a menu anchored by vodka rigatoni.
• Construction has been underway at the Coral Gables space since last summer.

La Pecora Bianca Crosses State Lines

La Pecora Bianca, the New York Italian restaurant known for its vodka rigatoni and whipped ricotta, is opening its first Florida location at the Shops at Merrick Park this fall. The 742,871-square-foot Coral Gables mall, anchored by Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, and Equinox, will house the restaurant at 360 San Lorenzo Ave., Ste. 1430, in the space that formerly held Italian restaurant Villagio.

Signage went up at the site in February 2025 pointing to a 2025 opening. Construction crews broke ground behind a chain-link fence over the summer, and the timeline has since shifted to fall 2026. The Coral Gables restaurant will bring the all-day format Barak built in New York: fresh pastas made in-house daily, including cacio e pepe and tagliatelle bolognese, alongside Italian-inspired cocktails built around amari and spritzes.

Ten Years, Six Dining Rooms, One Playbook

Mark Barak left corporate life to open Claudette, a Provençal restaurant in Greenwich Village, in 2014, then followed it with La Pecora Bianca  in August 2015. The brand has since expanded to six New York dining rooms across NoMad, Midtown, SoHo, Bryant Park, the Upper East Side, and the Upper West Side, built on a formula of local, seasonal Italian cooking rather than the heavier red-sauce standard. Coral Gables marks the first time the concept leaves New York.

Part of a Broader Miami Import Wave

La Pecora Bianca joins a run of New York dining brands staking out ground in South Florida this year. Momofuku offshoot Fuku opened its first standalone South Florida location a few blocks away on Miracle Mile in March, and Keith McNally and Stephen Starr's Pastis landed in Wynwood the same season. Coral Gables, with its high-income shopping base around Merrick Park, has become a preferred landing spot for that wave over beachfront alternatives like Miami Beach or Brickell.

La Pecora Bianca's build-out at Merrick Park is ongoing, with a fall 2026 opening targeted for the space Villagio vacated.