The buzz started when people noticed workmen replacing the familiar Adirondack green trim outside Le Petit Café with a sleek modern black. Then the windows were covered with brown paper hiding the interior for weeks. 

The package was unveiled last month as Mi Bella Restaurante, fulfilling a lifetime dream of head chef Fernando Chiliquinga and his wife Angie to open their own restaurant after a couple of decades of cooking for and running the front of such restaurants as Dalton’s in North Branford and Ludal’s in North Haven.