Small Plates, located in Armory Square, closed on Aug. 1, but renovations are currently taking place to move the restaurant to a bigger space at 116 Walton St.

Aster Pantry & Parlor, a new restaurant from the same owners of Small Plates, will open this fall to replace it.

Jonathan Gregory, vice president of operations for Small Plates, said Small Plates was doing well in Syracuse and the reason for the move is because the restaurant needed to utilize a larger space.

Aster Pantry & Parlor, which is slated to open in mid-September, according to a July 30 Syracuse.com article, will focus on featuring local ingredients from the Syracuse community. Damian DiPietro, the head chef for the new restaurant, is currently working on finalizing the menu.

“We are sourcing product locally from different vendors and farms,” Gregory said. “We are also looking for places that produce different creams and cheeses.”

Gregory added that the menu will be different from that of Small Plates, but guests will still have the option to order smaller items throughout their meal. He said the restaurant with the smaller plate format is “geared to a dining experience.”

Gregory described the aesthetic of the major dining section in Aster Pantry & Parlor as “rural and garden-esque,” which is different from Small Plates.

Gregory helped come up with the idea for Aster Pantry & Parlor while looking at what the Syracuse area had to offer. He said that he wanted to bring together the cityscape of downtown Syracuse and the rural land that is five or 10 minutes out of the city.

“I think the one thing that’s important is that we’ve had a good guest base of Syracuse University,” Gregory said. “We’re excited to have people back in school and have something that is new to the area to offer them.”

Published on August 25, 2015 at 4:03 pm

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