Owners offer unique foods at Italian eatery

There’s nothing especially difficult about turning a sports bar into an Italian restaurant.

“We just gutted everything,” said Sunset in Tuscany owner Rick Pederson, who along with his wife Shelley bought the old Home Plate sports bar on Harvard Road in Liberty Lake.

Since then, they’ve been working to renovate the building, taking out old sports memorabilia and replacing electrical wiring. New tile and clean furnishings decorate the interior, and the layers of smoke smell have disappeared.

“We knew it was a big project but it turned out a lot bigger than we thought,” Pederson said. But now the restaurant is open, serving lunches and dinners.

“It’s been my wife and I’s dream to open a restaurant where there’s always something new,” Pederson said. The food at Sunset in Tuscany is all prepared fresh, and microwaved food is out of the question.

“I don’t want to be like the big chains,” he said. “I want unique foods.”

The restaurant serves traditional Italian pastas, as well as a selection of 100 percent corn-fed USDA Prime steaks. The meatballs and seafood are also highlights, Pederson said.

By fall, Sunset in Tuscany will likely feature a weekly fresh sheet of new items from the restaurant’s 700-recipe thick cookbook. And reservation-only themed dining nights will start on Tuesday nights in September, Pederson said.

The restaurant currently employs a staff of about 40 people, and has been busy since it opened about two weeks ago, Pederson said.

“We’re trying to create an experience,” he said.