Umile Trattoria, now open in Haddonfield, is ‘truly not a pizzeria’

Walter Gouldsbury III and David Murray are bullish on the Haddonfield dining scene. In the last several years, they opened two casual restaurants in town — Crumb (sandwiches and salads) and Gouldsburger’s (burgers). On Wednesday, they open a third, Umile Trattoria, with a partner, Ricky Coppick, in the former Earth Eats Cafe in a quaint former rowhouse at 211 Kings Highway East.

Their first goal is to address a misperception that has dogged the project since social media picked up the announcement in February. “People have been, ‘Another pizza place coming to Haddonfield?’" said Gouldsbury.

Understandable. The greater Haddonfield area is home to easily two dozen pizzerias and pasta houses.

“But this is truly not a pizzeria,“ Murray said.

Umile — Italian for “humble” (“OOO-mee-lay”) — does have a steam-injected, three-deck Moretti Forni , but it also will be used to cook other dishes besides 12-inch pies. There are seasonal pastas, salads, and plates (even roasted bone marrow among the appetizers) on the lunch menu and dinner menu. Aside from the pizza, there’s no red sauce on the menu, though the paccheri alla vodka with cup-and-char pepperoni ribbons, braised shallots, and Calabrian chile flakes has a blush sauce amped with local vodka from Wildfether Distilling.

For Sunday brunch, there are breakfast dishes (frittatas and omelets), salads, pizzas, and sandwiches.

Dinner pasta prices are in the mid-$20s, and main plates range from $24 for cranberry farrotto (a vegan dish) to $44 for Mishima Wagyu flat-iron steak.

“Our philosophy for all of our places is the same,” Murray said. “We cook only with olive oil, even our fryers. We’re using pasture-raised meats, cage-free organic eggs. Our sandwiches are on house-made bread."

The 24-seat front dining room, with its coffered ceiling and white wooden mantel decorated with curios and bookshelves, feels somewhat like a Pottery Barn showroom. There’s a six-seat dining counter facing the kitchen, and a 14-seat table in a rear private room.

The space required extensive work to turn it from a cafe into a full-fledged restaurant. The partners were not prepared for just how much it would take.

Umile’s opening was in sight this summer. They said permits were approved for the restaurant to vent exhaust out of the side of the building into the alley. Just before work began, however, borough officials rescinded the permit and ordered the restaurant to run a vent along the side of the building to the rear. The additional work cost $40,000, including engineering, Gouldsbury said.

The partners do view Umile’s look and feel as a step up from their other restaurants, “but this is not upscale dining,“ Gouldsbury said. “I’d call it comfortable.”

Umile Trattoria, 211 Kings Highway East, Haddonfield. Hours: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. for Sunday brunch, and 3 to 8 p.m. for Sunday dinner. Hours on Wednesday, Oct. 9 will be 4 to 9 p.m. A few steps lead up into the restaurant.