Raleigh’s next rooftop restaurant promises Roman pizza with a skyline view

Raleigh diners will soon have their best view yet of the moon hitting the sky while tasting artisan pizza pies.

A terrace in the sky is the next restaurant from Mulino owner Samad Hachby, who is planning a new Italian concept nine stories up in The Dillon building in downtown Raleigh’s warehouse district.

Named La Terrazza for the restaurant’s grand outdoor space, the new concept is built around Mediterranean cuisines and promises pasta as well as pizza.

“This is Mulino’s big brother,” said Hachby in a phone interview. “It’s a space that lends itself to something grand. We’re thinking a Mediterranean feel with that open air space.”

When the Dillon opened three years ago it brought large, out-of-town fine dining restaurant concepts with it, like Barcelona Wine Bar, Oak Steakhouse and O-Ku Sushi, as well as the homegrown jewelbox cafe Heirloom Brewshop. Its ninth-story restaurant space emerged as a highly desirable spot for a new dining venture, initially going to Brewery Bhavana owners for a new project, which was later canceled.

Hachby said he walks around with 10 different menus in his head, but developed La Terrazza to fit the space. Like Mulino, which has an outdoor patio straight out of a luxury AirBnB listing, with an elevated pool zig-zagging through tables, La Terrazza is made for the Instagram age, in which diners often eat with their eyes first.

“I think the atmosphere feeds you too in a different way, on different levels,” Hachby said. “Sensually, aesthetically, it sets the tone for conversation and creates another flavor profile for what you’re trying to do with the menu.”

La Terrazza will be a large restaurant at 4,700 square feet of dining room and kitchen space, plus a 1,300-square-foot, glass-enclosed patio and outdoor seating.

The food will be predominantly Italian, Hachby said, but blend dishes from throughout the Mediterranean.

“It will be Provence meets Barcelona, meets Apulia and Lazio,” Hachby said. “Dynamic dishes and fresh flavors.”

Thick, square-cut pizza slices

The menu itself will include various crudi, seasoned raw fish dishes, and put an emphasis on pizza, baking pies in the rectangular Roman al taglio style, building on the Triangle’s current trend of thick, square-cut slices.

Hachby said La Terrazza’s pizzas will have a croissant-like lightness and playful toppings. He plans to bake in a conventional electric oven rather than the intense heat of a wood-fire oven.

“Wood-fire is right for some things, but can be very mercurial,” Hachby said.

Hachby, who just returned from a stage, or kitchen internship, in Italy, said the beverage side of La Terrazza will focus on Italian cocktails, as well as an emphasis on sparkling wines.

“People overlook the importance of a great sparkling bottle at the beginning of the meal,” Hachby said.

The restaurant’s timeline is open-ended, but will open next year. Hachby said he purchased the restaurant’s equipment months ago and put the pieces in storage while construction began. The restaurant’s design is also a puzzle set to be assembled, having been designed with a firm in Italy, Hachby said.

“That space without anything would be amazing just because of the setting,” he said. “I think the drama of the place is the conduit.”