Pascone's Ristorante opens at UTC

From the time she was 7 years old, Judi Stanley knew she wanted to open a restaurant.

While living in San Francisco, a relative had taken her to see the original film, “Moulin Rouge.”

“I came home and I said, “Daddy, I’m going to open a restaurant one day,” Judi Stanley said of her father, Michael Klein. “He said, ‘No daughter of mine will ever be in the restaurant business.’”

But at 49 years old, Stanley did, after a successful career in the real estate industry. She opened her first restaurant and general store in 1992 in Bar Harbor, Maine.

Now, at 76, she still is a restaurateur — with the opening of the area’s newest Italian eatery, Pascone’s Ristorante.

Stanley opened Pascone’s in May 2016 in Bar Harbor, but closed the establishment after the 2017 season. She had moved to Florida full time to be closer to her daughter, University Place’s Michelle Ettinger, and grandchildren Hudson and Ireland Ettinger. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to start a new business in Sarasota at first, but the urge grew almost immediately after she closed her Maine location.

“I don’t sit still very long,” Stanley said.

She started looking for locations in January. The former Square 1 Burgers space at The Market at UTC suited her needs well, and Stanley believed a locally owned Italian restaurant would be perfect.

“There’s not a table that sits here that I don’t greet,” Stanley said. “When people are dining, they don’t just want good food. There’s nothing like the owner or the chef coming out.”

Stanley and her husband, Bob, returned Sept. 29 from Lake Como, Italy, and Judi Stanley is working to recreate a lemon ravioli recipe they tasted while there.