For 20 years, Abbas Jamshidi worked as a chef at Vincenzo’s, one of Louisville's most popular Italian restaurants. After years of making alfredos, scampis, and raviolis, Jamshidi opened an Italian food truck, Bellissimo, with his family in 2017.
Last Thursday, March 2, Bellissimo opened its first brick-and-mortar restaurant at 2217 Steier Ln., near other international food spots like Eden & Kissi and Jasmin Bakery.
“I knew for a long time he was good at cooking, and I’ve always wanted him to open a restaurant, or a food truck or something….but let me help you out,” said Jamshidi's stepson, Farad Resoli, about his stepdad.
Resoli also said the new location is expanding the food truck's original menu to add more appetizers as well as lunch and dinner options, including seafood pastas, pasta salads, and new chicken dishes. Starting today, the expanded menu will also have Afghan food made by Resoli’s mother, Mahdobu (Megan). The Afghan dishes will include mantu (a meat-filled dumpling), bolani (stuffed flatbread), and kabuli pulao (a rice dish that traditionally includes raisins, carrots, and meat).
Resoli told LEO that including his family’s cultural dishes make the restaurant stand out, since he did not know many restaurants that made Afghan food when his family first immigrated to Louisville in 2003.
Bellissimo’s food truck will still be in operation while the restaurant is open.
