Gennaro's Ristorante Italiano brings scratch-made pasta to Wimberley

Gennaro's Ristorante Italiano opened June 24 at 13900 Ranch Road 12 in Wimberley, giving Canyon Lake restaurateur Gennaro DiMeo and co-owner Dino Taccogna a new Hill Country dining room in the former Hildee's Texas Dine-Inn space. Built around scratch-made cooking and a Naples-rooted identity, the restaurant is pushing past the quick-pizza label with pasta, hand-tossed pies and seafood meant to draw both local regulars and visitors heading through town.

The opening was paced to settle the room before the rush. Owners hosted practice dinners before the official debut, then welcomed local dignitaries, city leaders, first responders and school authorities ahead of the grand opening. Taccogna said the response during those early meals was “unbelievably accepting,” a promising sign for a place that is clearly trying to build repeat business rather than trade on novelty alone. The official site describes Gennaro's as family-owned and operated, and its menu pitch is equally direct: lunch specials, pizza, family dinners and wine service.

Inside the kitchen, the menu pulls from Naples and Puglia, with daily pasta specials, rotating seafood dishes and antipasti rounding out the offer. DiMeo is listed as executive chef, and the back-of-house was expanded during renovations that also added new windows and relocated restrooms while preserving the live oak and patio fountain area outside. A double La Bestia pizza oven was installed to support the wood-fired program, reinforcing the restaurant’s leaning toward a fuller Italian dining experience rather than a narrow pizza-only concept.

DiMeo’s resume gives the opening more weight than a one-off neighborhood debut. His restaurant career began in 1988 with Antonio's Pizza & More in Deer Park, and one background profile says he has been in the business for almost five decades. He now operates restaurants in Deer Park and Baytown, along with Gennaro's Trattoria and Elio's Pizzeria in Canyon Lake, making the Wimberley address part of a broader family network that has moved west with him. The family motto, “chi mangia bene, vive bene,” fits the pitch here: good food, served in a room built for lingering.

For Wimberley diners, the appeal is as practical as it is culinary. The former Hildee's site has been refreshed into a destination-like stop on Ranch Road 12, with a stone patio under a sprawling live oak and a menu built for both a fast lunch and a slower family dinner. That combination keeps the old address active and adds another reason for diners to linger on the corridor.