The Contemporary Arts Center is getting a new cafe. Fausto, a partnership with the Ferrari brothers — the duo behind Mom 'n 'em coffee shop/wine bar in Camp Washington and Ferrari Barbershop & Coffee Co. downtown — will open June 24 for breakfast and lunch.
Tony and Austin Ferrari are Cincinnati natives who returned home after opening and operating Hillside Supper Club and Provender Coffee in San Francisco. Fausto, named after their father and their great uncle, will feature locally sourced and seasonal ingredients that play on the creativity of the CAC.
“What comes with food, good wine and good design is naturally great art,” says Tony, the chef, in a release. “They all work together, really, and have the same language. People who come to see art have open imaginations, and hopefully the same thought and eye for food.”
The menu offerings will include dishes like baked eggs in tomato sauce or chia seed pudding for breakfast and handmade linguini and clams or a chicken salad sandwich for lunch. There will also be coffee, tea, wine and cocktails, like the Refreshing as Yoko: pamplemouse, Aperol, grapefruit bitters, sparkling wine and rosemary.
The CAC cafe was most recently home to an outpost of Melt, which closed in 2018. Before that it had been Bottle & Basket, a sister to Melt, and before that, a branch of Collective Espresso.
“With the Ferrari Brothers and their Fausto at the CAC concept, we feel we’ve truly found kindred spirits," said Alice & Harris Weston Director Raphaela Platow in a release. "Their excitement about bringing a unique and creatively expressive restaurant to the culinary landscape of Cincinnati is infectious, and we can’t wait for the city to experience this new offering in the heart of downtown. The attention to detail that the Ferraris bring to their craft extends from the sourcing and sustainability of the ingredients in each dish to the carefully considered guest experience, mirroring the ethos of the curated and always-changing exhibitions in the galleries above.”
Fausto will be open 7 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Monday-Saturday and 8 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Sunday for breakfast and lunch with dinner service to follow.
The Contemporary Arts Center is located at 44 E. Sixth St., Downtown.
