Hit Harbor Town Italian restaurant Cocozza to get second location in East Memphis

Popular Harbor Town red sauce joint Cocozza American Italian is getting a second location in East Memphis next year.

Owners Patrick and Deni Reilly announced Friday that they had secured a lease at 919 S. Yates. Construction on the 3,000-square-foot space is slated to begin this summer, with completion estimated for winter 2025.

Cocozza began as a popup outside the Reillys' other restaurant, The Majestic Grille, when it was closed during the pandemic. Management remained on salary, and the restaurant's full staff was still being fed twice a week and keeping their health insurance — so management needed a way to bring in some income.

"[It was] also just to give us and our management team something to do, and not go stir crazy," Deni Reilly said laughing. "And it just took off, it was a huge hit and people loved it."

After The Majestic reopened, the Cocozza popup ended, and while some dishes remained on the menu, Reilly said there were too many people asking about Cocozza for them to ignore. Cocozza soon opened its first brick-and-mortar location at 106 Harbor Town Square in December 2022, and it was met with just as much success as the pop-up.

"We love it. Harbor Town has been so welcoming, and it's just taken off and been a big hit," Reilly said. "And the great thing about the concept... is that we can do another one easily. We just feel that it's a neighborhood restaurant. We're not going to open another location just to open another location, the spot's really got to match what the brand is."

So that's exactly what they're doing. Reilly said the new restaurant, located in White Station, is perfect for the family-friendly, local neighborhood restaurant feel they're going for. It comes with practical benefits as well.

"It's actually a little bit bigger than what we have in Harbor Town, we'll be able to have a bigger bar, we'll have a slightly larger dining room," she said. "But the location itself, even though it's real close to Poplar, because Memorial Gardens is across the street, it's actually kind of a quiet street, so it's got great access, but it doesn't feel busy."

A covered patio, to-go parking and valet parking will also be available at the restaurant.

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Reilly said they're going for a '70s "ugly-cute" aesthetic akin to the red-sauce joints she visited growing up in New Jersey.

"We have the wood paneling, and the funky weird looking wallpaper on the top [of the walls]," she said. "It's supposed to look kind of like your favorite grandmother's basement that you used to hang out at."

The new location will start out retaining dishes that are favorites in Harbor Town, such meatballs, rigatoni and cheesy garlic bread, and may add a few new menu items later down the line. The all-Italian wine menu will stay similar, but Reilly said she's going to have some fun with the cocktail menu, which will call back to the new location's history as a former 7-Eleven.

"We have heard some absolutely hilarious, fun stories from friends of ours who grew up in those neighborhoods there, that every day after school it was the hangout spot to come play video games and drink Slurpies," she said. "So the cocktails are going to reflect that history and some of those stories."

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Though it's a difficult time to be a small business restaurant owner right now, Reilly said she's confident in Cocozza's success.

"We think with our concept, it is something comforting, something easy, everybody likes Italian, it's approachable, accessible, fairly affordable, we feel that people will always sort of seek that out, so we're confident in that," she said. "We're just excited to get open in East Memphis."

Jacob Wilt is a reporter for The Commercial Appeal. You can reach him at jacob.wilt@commercialappeal.com.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis restaurant Cocozza to open second location: Here's where & when