A New Vatican Project Will Have a Restaurant from Two Chicagoans, Under a Chicago-Born Pope

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A Chicago restaurateur and chef are teaming up to open a restaurant at a new public-facing Vatican property on the grounds of a longtime papal retreat south of Rome. Phil Stefani of Chicago's Stefani Restaurant Group and Oprah's former personal chef Art Smith of various Chicago restaurants will provide the restaurant and catering for the Borgo Laudato Si', an initiative started under the late Pope Francis meant to serve as a gathering and education space for ecological awareness.

Although Pope Leo XIV was born in Chicago and grew up in south suburban Dolton, the selection of Stefani and Smith took place under the first American pope's predecessor, Pope Francis. "Did Pope Francis have some powers we don't know about? I don't know," Stefani joked at a press conference announcing the venture, alluding to the coincidence of Chicagoans running a restaurant on Vatican grounds under a Chicago-born pope. 

"I'm excited about bringing a little bit of Chicago to the Vatican," Mayor Brandon Johnson said at the press conference, saying the restaurant was a "testament to the diverse cultural vibrancy of our city." He asked Stefani to deliver a "true Chicago hot dog" to visitors – Stefani said one would be on the menu – joking that, with a Chicago-born pope, ketchup on a hot dog is "officially now a cardinal sin."

Francis is the guiding force behind the Borgo Laudato Si', which is located on the property of the historic papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, some 15 miles south of Rome. Francis gave up many of the trappings of the papacy, including the use of the summer palazzo enjoyed by centuries of popes, which is now a museum. 

Borgo Laudato Si' is named after Francs' second encyclical, a document called Laudato Si' ("Praise Be to You") that exhorted the people of the world to take "swift and unified global action" to combat environmental degradation and global warming. The new public property follows that 2015 encyclical's focus on ecological stewardship. A greenhouse outfitted sustainable technologies will sit aside gardens and farmland where training in organic farming, winemaking, olive harvesting, and regenerative agriculture will take place, with a focus on reaching vulnerable groups. While the Borgo Laudato Si' is now open to the public, further parts of it will debut in the coming months, including the restaurant, which is projected to open in spring of 2026. 

Stefani and Smith's restaurant, the only one on the property, will also incorporate sustainability through farm-to-table dishes grounded in Italian food, with a few Chicago and Peruvian touches in a nod to Pope Leo's Chicago upbringing and longtime residency in and citizenship of Peru. It will be open for breakfast and lunch while the Borgo Laudato Si' is open to the public. 

Italian cuisine is a touchstone of the Stefani Restaurant Group, which includes Tavern on Rush, Tuscany on Taylor Street, and Stefani Prime in Lincolnwood. It's less obvious in the work of Smith, who came to fame (and Chicago) as Oprah's personal chef and specializes in Southern food at restaurants like Reunion by Art Smith on Navy Pier. But he has a clear interest: he is an executive producer of the recent James Beard Award-winning documentary Marcella, about the legendary Italian cookbook author Marcella Hazan. (It's available to stream via the PBS app.)

The project is particularly meaningful for Stefani, who is both Italian and Catholic, and who announced at the press conference that he was handing the reins of his restaurant group to his children, Anthony and Gina, after 45 years. Although he was born in Chicago, his parents were Italian immigrants and his first language was Italian. "I always told my friends in Italy I would never open a restaurant in Italy," he said at the press conference. And he hasn't broken that promise: "It's in the Vatican!"