Grazie Nonna plans Ballston opening with handmade pasta and comfort dishes

Grazie Nonna has put its name on the former Rustico corner at 4075 Wilson Blvd in Ballston, where the Italian-American restaurant is targeting a mid-2027 opening in about 3,500 square feet on the first floor. The signs already point visitors to the brand’s Instagram and newsletter, a visible marker that the project has moved past paper plans and into build-out.

The Ballston location will be Grazie Nonna’s second restaurant, building on the downtown Washington, D.C. original that opened in September 2022 at Midtown Center as an 80-seat spot. Casey Patten is behind both Grazie Nonna and nearby Grazie Grazie at 4121 Wilson Blvd, adding another dining address to a Wilson Boulevard corridor where he already has a foothold. Patten, who previously founded Taylor Gourmet, has framed Grazie Nonna as a full-service Italian restaurant that leans into the kind of warm, nostalgic atmosphere people expect from a family-run neighborhood room.

That identity shows up clearly on the menu. Grazie Nonna’s downtown operation is built around handmade pasta and comfort dishes, including vodka sauce mafalde, shrimp scampi, Sunday sauce, and macaroni parmigiana. The menu also pushes a family-table approach with a “Feed Me Nonna Style” option that bundles antipasti, pizza, macaroni, and dessert, turning the restaurant into something broader than a standard pasta stop.

The brand already has a working base while Ballston waits: Grazie Nonna offers catering out of its downtown location, giving the concept a current operation as the new site comes together. That matters in a neighborhood where restaurant turnover can leave a block feeling paused for months at a time. Rustico closed at the address on March 10, 2024, after nearly 14 years, and the February permit filings followed by the new signage suggest Grazie Nonna is now writing the next chapter for that ground-floor space.

For Ballston, the project is not just another future opening on the calendar. It is a second outpost for a concept that already knows its audience, already serves pasta with a comfort-food pitch, and is already making the old Rustico site look like a real restaurant again.