Michael White's Nicoletta Expanding To New Jersey

Chef Michael White is expanding his restaurant empire with an upcoming New Jersey outpost of his popular East Village pizza spot, Nicoletta.

The news was tweeted by radio host Anthony Scillia, who also goes by Tony Mangia. He spotted the announcement sign hanging in the window of the upcoming restaurant in Bernardsville, N.J.

"Alta Marea Group and Chef Michael White are pleased to welcome you to Nicoletta," it said.

The new spot will occupy the restaurant space next door to the Bernardsville outpost of White's Osteria Morini, a casual Italian restaurant White originally started in Soho, which opened its outpost in New Jersey last year.

The original Nicoletta in New York's East Village is just more than a year old, having first opened in June of last year.

In an interview not long after Nicoletta opened, White told The New York Times that he hoped to replicate it in different places. Changing an earlier Bernardsville restaurant into an Osteria Morini had worked very well for Alta Marea, and White said the company intended to continue expanding the brand with more Osteria Morini branches in the future. 

"It makes sense to create a brand," he said. "We're not like Mario Batali's Babbo Group, with a collection of restaurants, each one different."