Maria & Enzo’s Ristorante Opens with Mickey and Minnie at Disney Springs

Hi everyone!

Maria & Enzo’s Ristorante opened yesterday with a brief ceremony at Disney Springs. We have photos and video from that event along with a few photos of each restaurant below that are part of this Patina Restaurant Group complex: Maria & Enzo’s, Enzo’s Hideaway and Tunnel Bar; The Edison and counter service location Pizza Ponte. It was also National Spaghetti Day, which brought a photo op with a huge pot of spaghetti and meatballs.

Maria & Enzo’s Ristorante is located just up the bridge from Characters in Flight, located in The Landing area of Disney Springs.

Yesterday, there was still a sign that said that the restaurant was coming soon.

Walt Disney World Ambassadors Ken Facey and Brandon Peters hosted the event.

The backstory for the three Italian restaurants is that this location used to be the Disney Springs air terminal. Eventually it closed down, but Maria & Enzo, Italian immigrants who owned a bakery inside, purchased the terminal. And that is the theme for the event yesterday, with the dancers looking very Pan Am.

 

Here is our video of the ceremony, with more photos following.

Senior Vice President of Disney Springs Maribeth Bisienere said a few words with Mickey by her side.

Vice President of Disney Springs Keith Bradford was at the other end of the group with Minnie.

Confetti in the colors of the Italian flag was shot off.

The large pot of spaghetti and meatballs was brought out for photos to celebrate National Spaghetti Day.

Patina Restaurant Group CEO Nick Valenti poses with Mickey and Minnie. The Patina Group has many restaurants at Walt Disney World as well as at Downtown Disney at Disneyland. The restaurants they have opened over the years include Epcot’s Tutto Italia and Via Napoli, as well as Morimoto Asia at Disney Springs. At Disneyland, Catal and Tortilla Jo’s are two of their restaurants. The opening of this complex adds four more restaurants to the mix.

We entered into Maria & Enzo’s after the ceremony.

We toured the restaurant a few weeks ago and it hadn’t changed much since then. It has a vibrant design with the huge windows and a mural at the top with different destinations depicted. The mural locations are in the same direction as the real destinations.

Coney Island.

We tried a handful of samples and wines, but not enough to provide any sort of review. We’ll eventually make our way over there to review it.

The globe above has three gold dots representing Walt Disney World, Disneyland, and Walt’s hometown of Marceline, Missouri.

This is a look at one table setup.

Characters in Flight can be seen out the window.

Enzo’s Hideaway has the backstory of a former rum-running tunnel and offers a different menu (I didn’t see it yesterday).

Enzo’s Hideaway offers both regular tables for dining and a bar.

Here is a look at the dining area.

A hidden Mickey can be found among the graffiti on the wall, with the name Walt.

Next, we walked into The Edison. The Edison’s backstory is that it used to be a power plant, and it is family friendly by day and then it is 21+ at night after about 10:00 p.m. We didn’t have a lot of time in The Edison as guests were arriving upstairs as we were entering.

The sink is outside the restrooms.

We were told during a tour a few weeks ago that a lot of the decor here is real artifacts, including the boilers.

There are several different bars.

One of the dining areas.

Doors here lead outside.

The clock tower is the signature icon.

Our next stop was to look inside Pizza Ponte, which opened about 10 days ago. This is the counter service location.

The food in the cases looks terrific.

The desserts look particularly inviting.

Sfoglia Di Riso.

Tiramisu Mascarpone. We tried this at the media event and it was very good.

Zeppole Con Panna.

Cannoli.

And then there are sandwiches, I photographed a couple of them.

There are a variety of different pizzas.

Thin crust pizza is also here.

Pizza Ponte employees were ready to take orders! I think this will be our first stop in the next week or so to review, once Epcot Festival of the Arts has kicked off.

We will share more of Maria & Enzo’s and other restaurants here once we start reviewing them!