The owner of a Brookfield restaurant is set to expand his catering operation while at the same time opening a deli/grocery store that will specialize in Italian delicacies.

Sal Sciortino, who opened Trattoria Gemelli on Grand Boulevard in 2005, said last week he hopes to have his new venture, Toscanino, open by mid-September at 3740 Grand Blvd., across the street from the restaurant. The front of Toscanino will be a small, 500-square-foot convenience grocery that will also sell imported Italian products such as olive oil, sauces, cheese and pasta. The store will include hot and cold deli counters where customers can order submarine sandwiches or buy prepared dishes such as lasagna, salads and other ready-to-eat items.

The store will also feature a bakery section that will sell, among other things, cookies made by Sciortino’s father, who retired from the restaurant business in 2006. It was Sciortino’s dad who actually named the new store.

“My dad came up with it,” Sciortino said. “It’s a type of bread with sesame seeds.”

The key to the operation, however, will be a 1,400-square-foot kitchen that allows Trattoria Gemelli to expand its catering operation. The new kitchen, across the street from Trattoria Gemelli, will be bigger than the entire restaurant. While Sciortino was able to do some catering jobs using the restaurant’s tiny kitchen, it was impossible to take advantage of opportunities offered to him.

“We had no space to expand here [at Trattoria Gemelli],” said Sciortino, who is being joined in the new venture by his brother-in-law, Pat McKenna, and longtime business associate Dan Fissinger. “We had to turn down a lot of business for parties on Friday and Saturday nights. If we had the extra kitchen space, we’d do a lot more of it.”

After about a year of kicking around ideas on how to achieve that goal, Sciortino and his partners decided to investigate the former Kids World daycare business just across the street. In addition to the ability to expand the catering side of his business, Sciortino said the deli/grocery will fill a need that’s missing in downtown Brookfield.

“A convenience grocery store is something the neighborhood needs,” said Sciortino, who lives with his wife just around the corner from the restaurant. “I’d love to be able to walk somewhere to get something.”

Framing work inside the storefront at 3740 Grand Blvd. is nearly complete. While Sciortino said he didn’t have a firm date for the opening of Toscanino, he speculated it would be open by the middle of September at the latest.

“I’m getting excited about it,” he said. “Hopefully, it works out and we’ll be able to continue the good fortune that’s happening here.”