Lucente Cucina opens in Redding with hand-rolled pasta and house-made sauces

Lucente Cucina marked its grand opening on June 25 at 1900 Hilltop Drive in Redding, bringing hand-rolled pasta, house-made sauces and a more ambitious Italian dining room into the Holiday Inn. The ribbon-cutting ran from 9:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. and was folded into the Redding Chamber of Commerce’s weekly Greeters networking gathering, putting the launch in front of local business leaders as well as anyone looking for a first dinner reservation.

The Chamber listed the public as welcome and described the restaurant as a newly renovated space inside the hotel. That matters in a corridor where hotel dining can lean generic. Lucente Cucina is pitching itself instead as a chef-driven room built around scratch cooking, with the kitchen emphasizing hand-rolled pastas, house-made sauces, in-house butchery, fire-driven cooking and carefully sourced ingredients. Todd Jones, the Chamber’s president and CEO, framed the opening as a fresh addition to Redding’s dining mix and a reason for locals and visitors to gather around a local business.

The restaurant’s own site lists Lucente Cucina as a modern Mediterranean restaurant and wine bar, with a Riviera-inspired menu designed for sharing. Its published hours are Sunday through Thursday from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. and Friday through Saturday from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. The Chamber directory lists the restaurant at the same address, gives the phone number as (530) 221-7500, and names James Vereb as the primary general manager contact.

The reopening also carries some continuity. Choose Redding says the hotel restaurant had been serving Redding residents and visitors for more than 12 years before the current refresh, while Holiday Inn Redding said its restaurant had been closed for renovation and that Lucente Cucina was planned for a spring 2026 debut. The result is a relaunch that keeps the hotel’s dining footprint in place but gives it a sharper culinary identity, one aimed squarely at pasta eaters who want a scratch-made plate, not just a convenient stop.