Sostanza, downtown Tooele’s first fine-dining restaurant, will open for dinner service Friday with cuisine and decor that might remind locals more of San Francisco than Tooele.

Partners Spiros Makris and Terry Ellsworth have transformed two turn-of-the-century brick buildings into a fashionable eatery that reflects their considerable food, design and business experience. Makris, whose father was born in Greece, has been in the restaurant industry with his family for 35 years. Ellsworth, a Tooele native, has a lifetime of business consulting experience, plus restaurant and catering experience.

“Previously, to find a place anything like this, people would have to travel to Salt Lake,” said Makris. “The food and charm of Sostanza are unique.”

The restaurant’s contemporary decor features high molded ceilings, track lighting, wrought-iron embellishments, marble-floored rest rooms and a cool color pallet throughout. There’s a cocktail lounge with a bar and several low tables adjacent to the main dining area. Near-future plans include adding an outdoor seating area next to the main building.

“We wanted to make it upscale,” Ellsworth said. “But we also wanted to make it a place that felt comfortable for casual conversation and dining.”

The menu is “American fusion,” according to Makris. Several dishes combine Mediterranean elements with more traditional American fare, such as braised short ribs that come with saffron orzo pilaf, zucchini, and a veal reduction sauce; or the red pesto gnocchi with prawns, which includes artichoke hearts, roasted peppers, spinach and chopped tomatoes.

Appetizers range from $7 for hummus with grilled rustic bread to $12 for the Sostanza tempura featuring shrimp, calamari and crab cake. Entrees run from $12 for the baked veggie terrine — a combination of potatoes, mushrooms, asparagus, roasted peppers, eggplant and squash in a puff pastry with couscous and pomodoro sauce and avocado oil — to $31 for the 22-ounce Angus cowboy rib eye steak.

A variety of desserts are also prepared daily by an in-house pastry chef. In addition, all food served at Sostanza is made fresh from scratch, according to Ellsworth.

“We make our own broth from scratch,” Ellsworth said. “Even our pomodoro sauce, a tomato cream sauce, is made from fresh roma tomatoes.”

The restaurant’s head chef is Steve Berzanski, who has a degree in culinary arts from Johnson and Wales University in Rhode Island, the same school where celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse received his culinary training

Sostanza will be open at 4:30 from Tuesday through Saturday, and will serve food until 10 p.m.

For its first 30 days, Sostanza will accept diners by reservation only at 882-4922.

“Sostanza is a perfect fit for what we would like to see downtown,” said Tooele City Mayor Patrick Dunlavy. “They not only have refurbished two previously old and unoccupied buildings, but they will also bring people into the downtown area to see the other small unique businesses that make up our downtown.”

Tim Gillie: tgillie@tooeletranscript.com