Melissa and Andrea De Giorgi did not go looking for a second storefront. They already had one, at 1026 Delta Avenue, where VV The Italian Experience has been slinging authentic pastries and aperitivo since it opened in April 2025. Now, according to a Fox19 report published September 21, 2026, the couple is a few steps from opening VV Express in the space right next door. Same block, same owners, second lease.
That detail matters more than it sounds. Most commercial squares in this city churn through operators the way a rental market churns through tenants: one concept fails or gets bought out, another moves in, the sign changes, the regulars adjust. Mount Lookout Square does that too, but it also does something less common. It has at least one set of owners who tried the square once and liked it enough to double down inside the same calendar year they were still finding their footing.
What VV Express Actually Is
VV Express is described as a new version of the original cafe, not a rebrand or a relocation. The original VV opened as what Melissa De Giorgi called an Italian "la cafeteria," built around pastries, paninis, and an aperitivo hour meant to recreate the daytime rhythm of an Italian cafe rather than a full dinner service. Melissa told CityBeat the couple, who moved from Italy to Cincinnati and spent years wanting to bring a piece of home with them, chose the square specifically because of what she called the energy there, something she described as positive and strong.
A second location next door reads less like expansion for its own sake and more like a bet that the original concept undersold what the space could support. Fox19's report does not list a firm open date, only that the opening is close, which tracks with how VV has operated so far: quietly, without a splashy countdown, letting the food do the announcing.
This Isn't the Square's First Rerun
Longevity on Mount Lookout Square already had a track record before VV showed up. Zips Cafe has been serving burgers on the square since 1926, long enough that its regulars measure the place in generations rather than years. Millions Cafe has been pouring beer and frying wings since 1937, and it still runs adult spelling bees, a detail that tells you more about the crowd than any demographic summary could. Newer arrivals have had to fit into that rhythm rather than replace it. Delwood opened as a burger spot squarely in Zips' lane, and the square's regulars have split into camps rather than picking a winner. Ruthai's Thai Kitchen and Sago cover the end of the block that wants curry or noodles instead of a burger, and Golden Hands Bakery has built a following around a short list of pastries, including an apple crunch donut that keeps coming up unprompted in neighborhood conversation.
What ties Zips, Millions, and now VV together is not cuisine. It is that none of them treated the square as a stopover. They treated it as a base to build from, whether that base has held for ninety-nine years or eighteen months.
The One Storefront That Did Change Hands
The square's most recent real turnover, as opposed to expansion, happened at 1000 Delta Avenue. Cibo Vino Wine Bar & Cucina closed, and HangOverEasy signed a ten-year lease on the space in December 2023, eventually opening its doors to the public in August 2025. It marked the brand's second Tri-State location after Clifton and its sixth in Ohio overall, and the company has treated the Mount Lookout kitchen as a test site, rolling out menu items there before deciding whether they earn a spot at other locations statewide.
That is a genuine changeover, a different concept moving into a space its predecessor vacated. It stands out precisely because it is the exception on this square rather than the rule. Most of the square's story over the past two years has been existing operators either staying exactly where they were or opening a second door a few storefronts down, not incoming chains replacing outgoing ones.
Why an Operator Bets on the Same Block Twice
There is a simple, unglamorous reason a restaurant owner opens a second location three doors from the first instead of scouting a different neighborhood entirely: it is cheaper to build on proven foot traffic than to gamble on unproven traffic somewhere else. The De Giorgis already know who walks past their storefront on a Tuesday afternoon and who lines up for Sunday brunch. A second concept on the same block lets them capture a customer who wants something different without making that customer choose between VV and a competitor across town.
It also signals something about how tight the square's actual footprint is. Mount Lookout Square is not sprawling. Its retail spine runs a handful of blocks, dense enough that walking from Zips to Golden Hands to VV takes minutes, not a drive. An owner who wants to expand within that footprint is choosing proximity over reach, betting that customers who already cross the street for one thing will cross it again for another.
The Trail That's Quietly Feeding the Square More Foot Traffic
None of this happens in isolation from how people actually get to the square. Wasson Way, the rail trail that runs along the old Cincinnati & Eastern corridor, already connects into Ault Park at the eastern edge of Mount Lookout, and from there it links west through Hyde Park, Oakley, and Norwood toward Xavier University. The final piece of that corridor, Phase 7, is a roughly 0.7-mile stretch in Avondale connecting to Blair Court and finishing at Martin Luther King Drive. The City of Cincinnati's project page for the trail network puts construction starting in late 2026 and finishing by spring 2028, funded in part by a $4.1 million federal grant the city secured this year.
That final phase is miles from Mount Lookout Square itself, but it closes a loop that square regulars already use in pieces. Someone who bikes or walks in from Hyde Park or Oakley today is using a trail that will soon run uninterrupted all the way to Uptown, which means the square's morning and weekend foot traffic from the trail side has room to grow rather than plateau. A restaurant that opens a second location on this square right now is not just betting on the people who already live within walking distance. It is betting on a trail that is about to make walking distance a little longer than it used to be.
What This Adds Up To
None of these facts alone would tell you much. A new cafe expanding, a decades-old burger joint still open, a national breakfast chain testing menu items, a trail finishing its last mile. Put together, they describe a square where the businesses that succeed tend to stay, and the ones that leave tend to leave a space that gets filled fast rather than sitting vacant. That is a different story than the one most commercial strips can tell right now, and it is the reason a couple who moved here from Italy eight years ago decided their second bet belonged right next to their first.
If you are curious what a neighborhood like this looks like from the inside of a real transaction, not just a walk down Delta Avenue, Laura Zembrodt is happy to talk through what's actually happening on Mount Lookout Square and the streets around it.
