Casa Bellini, led by Chirawat and Parima Mekrakseree of De Praline LLC, filed for a new on-sale beer and wine license at 1169 Ski Run Blvd, Suite 6, in South Lake Tahoe, with the filing dated August 20. The address is the former home of Cafe Fiore, a longtime Italian restaurant that closed after nearly four decades in the same intimate space.
Cafe Fiore built a devoted local following inside what diners often described as a fairy-tale log cabin, holding just six tables, with a few more on the patio and in the garden when weather allowed. White tablecloths, warm lighting and a location slightly off the beaten path made it a favorite special-occasion restaurant for locals rather than a typical tourist stop. Its scratch-made Italian menu, built around local ingredients, included standout dishes like eggplant crepes stuffed with smoked salmon and capellini bolognese, drawing praise for consistently thoughtful, from-scratch cooking in a genuinely cozy setting.
The Ski Run Boulevard corridor sits close to the Heavenly Gondola and the base of South Lake Tahoe’s ski resort area, an active tourist stretch that also includes restaurants like the Cold Water Brewery and Cuppa Tahoe, giving Casa Bellini a built-in flow of visitors alongside its neighborhood regulars.
No details on Casa Bellini’s concept, cuisine or opening timeline have been confirmed yet, though the name suggests a continued Italian focus rather than a full departure from what made the address a local favorite for so long.
