One of Manhattan's busiest pasta houses is leaving New York for the first time, and it is coming to Coral Gables. La Pecora Bianca, the all-day Italian restaurant with seven locations across Manhattan, is listed as coming soon at The Shops at Merrick Park, on the mall's second level at 360 San Lorenzo Ave.

It will be the brand's first restaurant anywhere outside New York City, and so its first in Florida. No opening date has been announced yet, but the space is already reserved on the mall's own directory, and it will not be a small room: state records show seating for more than 330.

What La Pecora Bianca actually is

The name means the white sheep, and the concept is simple enough to explain in one breath: a relaxed, good-looking Italian room that serves from morning into the night, built around pasta made in house every day. In Manhattan it has locations in NoMad, Midtown, SoHo, Bryant Park, the Theater District and on both the Upper East and Upper West Sides, which tells you something about how well the formula travels from neighborhood to neighborhood.

The pasta is the reason people go. The restaurant names three dishes as its signatures: rigatoni in vodka sauce finished with stracciatella, gramigna (a short curly pasta) with house-made sausage, broccolini and chili flakes, and tagliatelle with a beef and pork bolognese. Around those, the New York menus run to spaghetti pomodoro or cacio e pepe, campanelle al limone with roasted shrimp, and garganelli with wild mushrooms and arugula pesto. Gluten-free pasta, also made in house, is available on request, and burrata can be added to any plate.

The rest of the menu is the kind of thing that makes a place work for a weeknight as well as a celebration. Whipped ricotta with truffle honey and country toast, beef and pork meatballs in pomodoro, a little gem Caesar, branzino, a chicken paillard, a burger, and on the sweet side a tiramisu for two and an olive oil cake. The New York locations also do a weekend brunch. Whether Coral Gables gets the identical menu or a Florida version has not been said, so treat the New York list as a guide to the style rather than a promise.

The bar is half the point

La Pecora Bianca leans hard on the Italian habit of aperitivo, the early evening drink that comes before dinner. The bar program is built around spritzes and negronis, plus house cocktails made with amari, the bittersweet Italian liqueurs, and the restaurant pours its own organic rosé, La Pecora Rosa. In a town where an outdoor drink at golden hour is close to a civic pastime, that format should land easily.

Why Merrick Park, and why it matters

A 300-plus seat Italian room open all day changes what an afternoon at Merrick Park can be. For residents of Coral Gables, South Miami and the neighborhoods off Ponce de Leon Boulevard, it adds a sit-down option that works for a working lunch, a family dinner and a late drink without changing venues.

It is also a vote of confidence in Coral Gables specifically. A restaurant that has only ever grown inside one city had every other market in the country to choose from for its first move, and it picked a mall a short drive from Miracle Mile. The size of the room suggests it expects to be busy at lunch as well as dinner.

What we do not know yet

The restaurant has not published a Coral Gables page, an opening date, hours or prices, and it has not said whether the Florida location will keep the all-day schedule or the weekend brunch. The brand's whole pitch in New York is a place you return to rather than save up for. If that holds here, it will be competing as much with the neighborhood Italian spots on Giralda Avenue and Miracle Mile as with anything in the mall.

What it means for you

If you have eaten at La Pecora Bianca on a trip to New York, the rigatoni vodka is about to be a short drive instead of a flight. If you have not, the simplest way to think about it is this: a big, bright, all-day Italian room with fresh pasta every day and a serious spritz list, arriving on the second level at Merrick Park. Gold Coast Wave will report the opening date as soon as the restaurant sets one.