Knight's Bistro Yields to Kitchen Consigliere at Haddon & Collings

Collingswood has 14 restaurants that offer Italian cuisine, says Kitchen Consigliere chef-owner Angelo Lutz, but none of them has his penchant for entertainment.

“What they do on that avenue, it’s great food and it’s basically dining,” Lutz told Patch. “It’s great food; it needs to be more.”

The man who's been dubbed "the mob chef" after a seven-year racketeering stint is hoping to parlay his signature flair into continued success at a new location: the corner of Haddon and Collings Avenues—a spot that, until the end of July, was occupied by the much-maligned Knight’s Bistro. 

“Vince, the owner there, wanted to retire, and I needed to get out of there,” Lutz said of the deal the two brokered. 

“It just happened. The stars were aligned.”

Turning business away

It’s no secret that Lutz had been trying to expand or escape his Powell Lane location for a while. 

A sizzle reel for Lutz’s reality TV pitch even shows him location-scouting the vacant lot at Haddon and Frazer Aves (caution: contains Goodfellas-appropriate language) as a possible alternative.

Problems with the ventilation system, or the signage, or getting the glare out of the front window at his LumberYard restaurant, had frustrated a business that Lutz said was “turning away about 100 people a week” due to a lack of seating capacity.

“I’ve been the best-kept secret in Collingswood for too long,” he said. “People in the town are stumbling in; I’ve been there three years.”

Negotiations with Lutz’s landlord, Charles Brem, to expand into the adjacent property—which will host frozen yogurt lounge Frusen Berri in the coming weeks—never got off the ground.

In fact, Lutz said he had been trying to cut a deal with Brem to retain the Powell Lane property as a breakfast spot while expanding to Haddon and Collings, but couldn’t broker a favorable rate.

(Then he found out that Brem was planning to offer his Powell Lane site as a turnkey operation on Craigslist, with the note, “Bring your concept or continue theme of popular current operation.” 

“Guess what? You can’t keep my theme,” Lutz said.) 

But all that searching and waiting should pay off in a month or so, when Lutz shifts his operations to the heart of Restaurant Row. 

Creating 'a dining experience'

With a focus on entertainment, the man who brought the Mummers to Collingswood says he’s going to bring “a dining experience” to the downtown.

“We’re going to introduce opera Monday nights, an a capella night; at least 8-10 times a month, entertainment in there,” Lutz said. 

“Danny Colingo, who sings with the Four Aces, he’s going to be in there doing some songs and walking around. Every six to seven weeks, we’re going to have John Varalli as a guest chef.

“As Frank Sinatra would say about Jilly’s West: ‘where the elite meet to eat’,” Lutz said.

That old-school, Italian-neighborhood feel is something that designers from The McMullin Design Group hope to integrate into the new look of the location, said Collingswood resident Bridget McMullin.

“Everything comes down to [Angelo’s] personality,” McMullin told Patch. “We want to be able to wink to that in some senses in the restaurant. We also want to give our diners a very true fine dining experience.

“We want to bring the mob without making it too kitschy,” she said. 

McMullin said that she’s presenting final designs to Lutz this week that will focus on “taking the cafeteria look out of Knight’s Bistro.”

“Angelo, when I first met him, he said, ‘I want you to pick out some posters to put on my wall’,’ McMullin said. 

“We want to make sure that conceptually [he has] something that’s going to transfer to multiple locations. Our job is to make sure that our ideas can be executed affordably and quickly so he can make sure he’s not down too long.”

McMullin, who has a background in restaurants—although Kitchen Consigliere will be the first her firm tackles—said her vision of the space is to create a setting that unfolds from the street and can be revealed in stages.

'Consigliere to go'

One big change will be creating “a lounge-y area” to keep guests from waiting outside as well as a “Consigliere to go” section for customers who want to buy prepared portions, frozen sauces and dry goods.

The alfresco dining will be retained, McMullin said, and Lutz has plans for a valet car service that makes use of his rear parking lot.

“It’s a premium spot and he has a lot of competition on that corner,” McMullin said. 

“We want to make sure there is the ability to sit inside and to be able to enjoy the entertainment even if you’re not staying for the full meal, and create a late-night experience.”

Lutz says that the new Kitchen Consigliere will feature “an upscale gourmet pizza on the scale of Osteria” within two weeks of opening. He'll also roll out old-world sandwiches (roast beef and roast pork Italiano, sausage and peppers) and some of the colossal desserts for which the restaurant is making a name.

“It’s gotten to the point where our regulars are asking what’s for dessert,” said pastry chef Patsy Connors. “They get a really big portion.”

Triple-chocolate fudge cake, cannoli, and Pizzelle Napoleon, layered with cannoli cream and fresh fruit, are just a few examples.

Connors said that the new location will require “double and triple our staff to go with the amount of people we’re going to have over there,” who must be found and trained within the next month (Lutz’s lease on the Powell lane location is up at the end of September).

It's a big step up from the Lumberyard location, but Lutz believes he's ready for prime-time.