When Limi Veliu’s family initially brought their New York-based restaurant to the Kansas City market, they were taking a chance.
Bella’s Italian Restaurant had already been in Texas for several years when the mayor of Lee’s Summit, Bill Baird, convinced the Veliu family to bring the restaurant further north after trying it on a trip to Dallas.
As former New Yorkers, they didn’t know what to make of the Kansas City area, Veliu said, but despite his family’s uncertainty, they decided to give it a go.
Though the Lee’s Summit community has given the restaurant a warm welcome in its six years there, Veliu said many of its customers frequently make the drive from other parts of the metro.
That’s including Olathe: one city that Veliu said doesn’t have much in the way of family-owned Italian restaurants — but that’s a problem he said he hopes to solve.
If all goes according to plan, then Bella’s will open its first Johnson County location in Olathe by the end of the month.
Bella’s Italian Restaurant is coming to 16110 W. 135th St.
- The restaurant is moving into a space just off 135th Street and Mur-Len Road, near Kohl’s and the Olathe Indian Creek Library.
- The space was previously occupied by Applebee’s, before the chain closed all of its remaining Johnson County locations last fall.
- Once Bella’s opens, its regular hours will be 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.
Bella’s serves “authentic” Italian cuisine
The menu at Bella’s features “a little bit of everything”, Veliu said — pulling inspiration from the recipes that his family made in their own kitchen in Bari, Italy.
Veliu said some of the most-ordered items at the Lee’s Summit location tend to be lasagna, chicken parmigiana, and alfredo dishes.
Other options on the menu at Bella’s include baked ziti, eggplant parmigiana, chicken piccata, and shrimp scampi.
“Everything is fresh, and made to order,” Veliu said. “Even if any customer doesn’t see their favorite dish there, they’re welcome to ask.”
This marks the Johnson County debut for Bella’s
Bella’s Italian Restaurant was initially opened by Veliu’s grandparents in The Bronx, after they immigrated to New York from Bari, Italy.
The name of the restaurant comes from the nickname (“Bella”) that Veliu’s grandfather used to call his grandmother, meaning “beautiful” in Italian.
The new Olathe restaurant marks a new chapter for Bella’s, which has been in the Kansas City metro area now for roughly six years.
If all goes according to plan, Veliu said it won’t stop there. He hopes to expand Bella’s with more Johnson County locations later on — maybe in Overland Park or Lenexa, he said.
But for now, the main focus is getting up and running in Olathe. That’s something he said he’s very much looking forward to.
“The people here are very friendly,” he said. “This town deserves something good.”
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