Ever since TAPinto Montville broke the news of the new owner of the former Montville Inn, Michael Cetrulo’s vision for his new restaurant Locanda Vecchia last June, food-lovers have been asking, “When is it going to open?” Locals are salivating to make reservations for Montville’s newest restaurant, which will be a sister to Cetrulo’s others, which include Scalini Fedeli in Chatham, Madison’s Il Mondo Vecchio and Montclair’s Scala del Nonna.

But what Cetrulo predicted back in June would be a cosmetic re-do of the dining room turned into a “total gut job,” he told TAPinto Montville recently, so renovations have taken longer than expected. “I wanted to replicate the vaulted ceilings we have in our other restaurants, and we used Venetian plaster treatments on the walls for an authentic look,” he said. “Then we used Rosso Levanto marble on the pillars and bar top.”