Owners of La Dolce Vita Ristorante have ideas for historic building

It’s been a pretty good year for the Kenneys.

The Oxnard couple took a Hawaiian vacation. They are new grandparents of an adorable baby girl. And for the first time, they own the 1901 Laurent/McGrath House, where they’ve been operating an Italian restaurant for nearly 13 years.

Michelle and Greg Kenney, owners of La Dolce Vita Ristorante, are now owners of the quaint Heritage Square building in Oxnard. After years of real estate purgatory, the sale of the city property finalized in May.

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“It felt really good to finally close escrow,” Greg Kenney said.

Being owners means the couple can truly invest in the property to maximize its charms.

First thing first — a fresh coat of paint.

Michelle Kenney admitted that when the faded yellow paint on the outside of the building was stripped, the Colonial Revival styled home looked more like a Halloween haunted house than a wedding location. But a fresh coat of yellow has brightened up the business, ushering a new chapter for the downtown restaurant.

The next project is a new bar to replace the existing one in the basement lounge, a spot to drink and sing karaoke near a fireplace. In the next month, the Kenneys plan to rip out the elongated bar and replace it with one that is circular so patrons can better face each other. An extra drink station for bartenders will also be added.

“I hate long bars,” Greg Kenney said. 

When you sit at one for an extended period of time, he said, your neck ends up hurting from turning to face your neighbor.

The lounge will keep the speakeasy vibe, but some new furniture will be brought in. Greg Kenney is particularly fond of a new table fashioned from a vintage bicycle. The couple wants to give the basement space a new name and is tossing around ideas that include the words “downtown” and “underground.”

Other improvements on the horizon include a new fridge, painting inside and redoing the floors. 

“We’re doing it little by little,” Greg Kenney said.

They got rid of the patio cover, which had dry-rotted beams. They’re considering a new cover with ivy or other plants.

“We’re moving along,” said Michelle Kenney. “Getting ready to roll.”

Previous coverage:

• Oxnard inks long awaited deal with Heritage Square restaurant
• Big things happening in small kitchen at La Dolce Vita in Oxnard’s Heritage Square

The upcoming changes aren’t just structural.

“We need to update the menu,” said Michelle Kenney, who is also the restaurant’s chef.

La Dolce Vita isn’t doing away with the standards. Customer favorites like meat lasagna, stuffed pork loin and portobello Florentine aren’t going anywhere. Michelle Kenney said she’s not the kind of chef who fills a menu with her personal favorites, ignoring customers’ taste buds.

Weddings and special events are the restaurant’s bread and butter. Michelle Kenney also leads cooking classes and private teas.

On a recent afternoon, she was cleaning up from a hectic Labor Day weekend, thinking of new menu items and also wondering what she’ll prepare for a November event hosted by The Star.

The Wine & Food Experience on Nov. 10 will feature celebrity chef Graham Elliot as well as a host of local chefs, winemakers and brewmasters. La Dolce Vita will be among the restaurants showcasing a few dishes.

Michelle Kenney is considering the lemon pistachio pasta, a dish well-received at a different charity event. She describes the pasta as a vegetarian version of carbonara with pistachios, lemon zest, white wine, a dash of cream, shaved Asiago cheese and Swiss chard for a pop of color.

“It’s light, easy and fresh,” she said.

It’s not on the menu yet, but she’s planning on it. It’s been hard to focus on menu changes with all the building improvements.

“It’s kind of all-consuming to have all the workers here,” she said.

More:TV show host chef Graham Elliot headlining Star’s Wine & Food Experience

Cranberry polenta bites is another dish she wants to serve at the Wine & Food Experience, which will take place at the Camarillo Airport hangar. The appetizer has seared polenta as the base with cranberries cooked in port wine, honey goat cheese and a hint of caramelized onion.

Menu tweaks and building upgrades have happened before when the Kenneys were renters, but they held back on some of the larger projects. For years, they have wanted to purchase the property, but it was owned by the city’s redevelopment agency and things got complicated during the Great Recession. That was when redevelopment agencies across the state dissolved.

For seven years, the Kenneys paid rent month-to-month, with a question mark hanging over their wish to own. Not everyone on the City Council wanted to sell the house to the Kenneys, but the majority thought it was important to keep the property a restaurant. La Dolce Vita is the only dining option in the 14-house square.

The majority of the City Council believed one key to downtown revitalization is to make Heritage Square a destination. To do that, the picturesque homes at the square must offer more than what law and dental offices can offer.

Under a tight deadline to sell off former redevelopment properties, the city in January agreed to sell the Laurent/McGrath house to the Kenneys. The sale also received the needed approval from an oversight board and the state finance department.

It was a relief to the Kenneys, who described the process as “three steps forward, two steps back.” Despite the uncertainty, the two never considered giving up on the restaurant.

“We’re not those kinds of people,” Greg Kenney said.

Tickets for the Star’s Wine and Food Experience, from $50 to $160, can be purchased at http://wineandfood.vcstar.com/ticket-packages.

The event is in its second year and benefits the Rancho Ventura Conservation Trust, a nonprofit dedicated to conserving and enhancing the foothills of Ventura and home to the iconic Two Trees.