Italian market and restaurant Catello’s coming to Indy’s north side

The owner of Catello’s Mozzarella Bar in Pendleton is set to open a second, much larger restaurant this month in Indianapolis, in the Clearwater Springs shopping center at 4901 E. 82^nd St.

The 8,400-square-foot Indianapolis location, to be called Catello’s Italian Art Cuisine, will feature both a restaurant and food market featuring freshly prepared cheeses, pastries, pastas, meats and seafood.

“We’re going to make everything fresh every day,” said owner Catello Avagnale, who is aiming for a Nov. 11 opening.

The restaurant will also serve alcohol and include both a family dining room and a 21-and-up room, along with a separate party room for group gatherings.

Catello’s will occupy an 8,400-square-foot space that formerly housed Fox & Hound English Pub and Grille. Fox & Hound closed in 2016.

Avagnale grew up in the Naples region of Italy, where he learned cheese-making from his father and a family friend. His Pendleton restaurant, which opened in December 2016, features house-made mozzarella and other cheeses in salads and pasta dishes. The menu also includes meats, seafood and desserts.

For his Indianapolis location, Avagnale decided to add an on-site food market as a way to showcase the made-from-scratch nature of the menu.

“I would like people to see everything we make in-house,” Avagnale said.

The market will be set up as a series of rooms—a cheese room, pastry room and so on—where employees will make the items on site. Some of those items will be sold directly to customers, while others will make their way onto the restaurant’s menu.

Avagnale said he also has plans to expand his Pendleton restaurant by adding a food market there, expanding that space to about 3,000 square feet. He’s also changing the name of that establishment to Catello’s Italian Art Cuisine, the same as the Indianapolis location.

Avagnale moved to this area from Italy in 2014 at the suggestion of a childhood friend from Italy, Matteo Di Rosa. “Matteo told me it was a good area, it was a nice country.”

Avagnale spent his first year in the U.S. working at Di Rosa’s Noblesville restaurant, Matteo’s Ristorante Italiano. After that restaurant changed hands, Avagnale worked at Ristorante Roma in Carmel.