Italian restaurant inked next to Fillmore in Fishtown

Travinia Italian Kitchen - a chain with a dozen restaurants mostly in the South - will be part of that enormous entertainment complex under construction across from the SugarHouse Casino in Fishtown.

Core Realty, developing a passel of parcels around Frankford Avenue and Richmond Street, has Live Nation's Fillmore and a smaller concert venue called the Foundry as its tentpole project in the Ajax Metal Works building. Also on the way for the $32 million project is a new home and tasting room for Philadelphia Distilling.

The Fillmore is due to open Oct. 1 with a Hall & Oates show.

Travinia will open "as soon as possible around Oct. 1," said Mark Craig, who founded Travinia with business partner Kevin Cox in 2002 in what Craig jokingly calls "that hotbed of Italian food, Greenville, South Carolina."

Point is, Craig and Cox are well-traveled steakhouse veterans who also own Arizona's, a steakhouse in Atlanta, and DC Prime Steaks in Ashburn, Va. On trips to Napa, they became enamored of vino and decided to combine it with rustic Italian food in a contemporary setting. The restaurant will offer 60 wines by the glass.

They were led to Core's Michael Samschick a few years ago by a friend. Craig said Live Nation's role in the project helped cinch the deal.

Travinia, which will be set up behind roll-up garage doors, will have a patio.