On Monday, February 3, Mia Restaurant will be rechristened as Mia Tapas Bar & Restaurant and will introduce a revamped menu featuring sashimi, soups, noodles, dumplings, and signature tapas items in addition to entrées inspired by many Asian cuisines, including Thai, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese. These innovative dishes will be prepared with traditional “slow food” cooking techniques and served up with a modern flair in Mia’s stylishly remodeled historic storefront at 130 The Commons.
This new concept is a “coming-together of the best of all worlds” for chef-owner Lex Chutintaranond. Lex’s first restaurant, Thai Cuisine, was named “best Thai food in New York including New York City.” Lex later established three more popular eateries in Ithaca: Just a Taste, a downtown wine and tapas bar; Madeline’s, an upscale Euro-Asian restaurant; and ZaZa’s Cucina, a modern Italian restaurant owned and operated by Lex and his wife, Flaminia Cervesi, who was born and raised in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. Mia Tapas Bar & Restaurant will draw on all of these successful concepts – the top-notch Far Eastern cookery of Thai Cuisine, the intimate tapas experience of Just a Taste, the chic cosmopolitan atmosphere of Madeline’s, and the savory noodles of ZaZa’s.
Says Lex of his newest and most ambitious venture, “Mia is a labor of love and the culmination of my years of travel, learning, and my experience in the restaurant industry. I’m proud to be able to bring forward this new menu and cocktail offerings that have been shaped by listening to our customers who have supported us throughout the years.” Adds Vicki Taylor, Associate Director of the Downtown Ithaca Alliance, “People love to eat tapas and Lex and Flaminia have an amazing history of producing creative food of the highest quality. The new menu and the late-night hours will draw in the food-loving crowd that Ithaca is known for. I think people will be pleasantly surprised at the affordability of the menu and the depth of its offerings.”
