In California, this restaurant was a celebrity magnet. Reborn in Boise, it woos families

Nikolai Castoro grew up in a Laguna Beach restaurant serving hot meals to even hotter customers.

Ti Amo Ristorante spent 14 years winning local “best of” dining awards while attracting actors, athletes and musicians, he remembers. “It was a pretty crazy spot in the ’90s, ’00s,” Castoro says.

When his parents relocated the family from Orange County to the Treasure Valley, they sold Ti Amo. In 2007, they opened Barbacoa, a powerhouse Boise restaurant that regularly earns its own accolades.

But more than 15 years after shuttering, Ti Amo has been reinvented.

Except it’s not about celebrities this time. It’s about Idaho families.

In a blink-of-an-eye transition July 12, the longtime Flatbread Neapolitan Pizzeria at 3139 S. Bown Way reopened as Ti Amo Italian Ristorante.

Castoro knows who Ti Amo’s customer base is now: Harris Ranch residents.

“It’s families, it’s kids,” he says. “Not a lot of people are looking to go out to a fine dining restaurant in Bown Crossing.”

Still, Ti Amo can’t help but offer upscale flourishes. After all, it’s part of Castoro’s Torro Restaurant Group. That lineup includes high-end Boise dining destinations Barbacoa and Coa de Jima, plus Coa del Mar, which opened recently in Eagle.

Last December, Torro Restaurant Group acquired the two local Flatbread pizza chain locations — the newly converted Ti Amo spot and the Flatbread at Chinden Boulevard and Linder Road.

The latter, in Meridian, will stay the same, Castoro says. But it has made a few improvements. The pizza dough got revamped, and the menu was expanded with pasta and steak.

But the longtime Flatbread in Bown Crossing that operated for 18 years? “It was time for a change,” Castoro says.

Pizza, steak, more

Tio Amo is a reminder of his childhood memories — albeit with significant differences.

“The one in California was a lot more high-end, fine dining,” he explains. “We carried over a handful of recipes from Ti Amo, the original, into the reincarnation. So we have a few of our pasta dishes and seafood dishes that were once in Ti Amo in Laguna Beach. But we wanted to keep our prices reasonable and keep it more of a family style, per our demographic.”

“You can go and get a pizza,” Castoro explains, “or you can go and get a $40 steak. We kind up left it up to our clientele. But I think it offers a very wide range and variety of options for the diner.”

That $40 steak — an 8-ounce filet mignon with potatoes and broccolini, topped with black truffle butter — isn’t the priciest item. But it’s close. The only spendier entree is a 14-ounce grilled rib-eye with roasted fingerling potatoes and vegetables for $42.

Eight pizzas run from $20 to $22, and for many, they won’t be single-serving. Castoro recommends splitting a pie and a salad with another diner. Ten different pasta choices range from ravioli marinara ($22) to beef tenderloin fettucine ($34).

There’s also a kids menu with $12 items such as chicken fingers and fries, macaroni and cheese bites with fries, and a build-your-own pizza.

Brunch, bottomless mimosas

Ti Amo (pronounced “tee AHmo”) serves brunch from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. A work in progress, that menu stays mostly in the $16 to $19 range with dishes such as avocado toast, a croissant sandwich, short rib eggs benedict and spicy chicken and waffles. “We’re kind of playing with items,” Castoro says. “We’re going to be running a ton of specials. We’re going to be doing breakfast pizzas — which are amazing.”

Bloody marys and other cocktails are early-day options; Ti Amo has a liquor license. Bottomless mimosas are $15. “We just put the whole bottle and a carafe of orange juice on the table,” he says, “so we let you do your mixing how you please.”

So far, Ti Amo seems to provide enough familiarity to please old Flatbread patrons, but enough pizzazz to win over new fans, too. “Everybody’s been lovin’ it,” Castoro says.

“I just didn’t want people to think, ‘Oh, Barbacoa has taken over, now we have to pay $70 for a meal,” he explains. “That’s totally not it at all. It’s a little different than our norm.”