Name: Italian restaurant goes from brink of closing to booming business
Uploaded: 2025-12-04T15:06:54.988Z
Duration: 3 min 51 s
Description: At a Nashville restaurant, a family-style feast is only the first course. A meal at Mangia is a celebration, with singing and dancing included. But its beloved chef almost had to close the restaurant when the pandemic hit. Nicole Valdes shows how with a few changes and some help, the business is now booming.

At a Nashville restaurant, a family-style feast is only the first course. A meal at Mangia is a celebration, with singing and dancing included. But its beloved chef almost had to close the restaurant when the pandemic hit. Nicole Valdes shows how with a few changes and some help, the business is now booming.

Nashville

Manja, a family-style Italian restaurant in Nashville, faced potential closure during the pandemic but was saved by strong community support and a $10,000 donation from celebrity chef Maneet Shohan. Owner Nick Pellegrino, known for combining his culinary and musical talents, shifted to operating only on weekends, which revitalized the business.

The restaurant is now thriving, offering guests a lively atmosphere with singing, dancing, and hand-prepared meals. Manja has become a place for special memories, including impromptu weddings, and continues to be celebrated for its joyful dining experience.

Italian restaurant goes from brink of closing to booming business

This morning, our series, The Dish goes to a Nashville restaurant where a family style feast is only the first course. A meal at Manja is celebration with singing and dancing like a big old Italian wedding. Nicole Valdez says it's almost, well, it was almost closed down. Then the community stepped right in. The aroma of authentic Italian cuisine isn't the only reason why this small Nashville restaurant is booming. It's the music and the man in the kitchen that make more than just your taste buds dance. That's Nick Pellegrino, owner, chef and choreographer of one of the most unique dinner experiences you'll find at Manja. That's Italian for eat. You're going to eat, baby. You come in here and you are eating where you wear your baggy pants. Ten dishes that come out. Ten dishes to Manja. Ain't getting no fresher than this, kids. Pellegrino spends days preparing it all by hand and mostly by himself. But there's an appetite for more than just good food here. When the music changes, it's time for guests to hop up on their feet. I'll go to the tables and I said, we're ready to dance. And people are like, well, I can't dance. And I said, look around. Nobody can dance in here. That's why it's fun. And it feels like this accomplished chef has a flair for fun and performance. It's probably because he started here, cutting not onions, but albums with stars like Jon Bon Jovi. It almost seems like this is the place where both of those loves meet. And you get to be truly yourself. A hundred percent. But when the pandemic hit, Manja, like many restaurants, struggled, forcing Pellegrino to make a tough choice and close for good. And within minutes, I was just inundated with just beautiful texts from people, posts on our social media, how you can't go away. What are some of the messages that have stuck with you? We had a couple that said, we're getting married. And I said, well, when's the wedding? They said right now, if this judge at our table will marry us. And they got married on the spot, in the restaurant. At your restaurant. At the restaurant. Insane, right? So to keep making memories, instead of opening seven days a week, he chopped it down to two. Here we go, like this, brush it off. And lift it up. Offering a one-of-a-kind dining experience, weekends only. And that changed everything. One, two, three, spin. Would you have ever thought that you'd be more successful being open only two days a week? No. I was like, let me buy myself a little time. He also got a little help from a friend. Nashville celebrity chef Maneet Shohan won Food Network's Tournament of Champions in 2021 and donated $10,000. What inspired you to want to help him try to keep his restaurant alive? It's like he's delivering the joy, you know, every week, which is, I think, incredible. Joy that may just be the secret ingredient to his comeback. Everything that you want an Italian restaurant to be, it's become. And it makes me want to never stop doing this. Watch me now! For CBS Mornings, I'm Nicole Valdez in Nashville, Tennessee. For CBS Mornings, I'm Nicole Valdez in Nashville, Tennessee.

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