Sorella, the new Italian restaurant that opens Friday at 2535 S. Kinnickinnic Ave. in Bay View, is a deeply personal one for the chef and co-owner. Kyle Toner, who's opening the restaurant with another New Jersey native, general manager Paul Damora, is summoning the flavors if not the precise dishes of Italy from Rome southward.

And Toner is bringing to bear his Italian-American upbringing and that of his business partner's, as well as the restaurants of Jersey, too. "Pork chop with cherry peppers is something they do everywhere in Jersey," where the servers ask diners if they want their peppers sweet or hot, and "nowhere in Italy," Toner said.