‘We want to give back’: New Italian restaurant inspired by love for downtown Macon

Donny Barnes and Vincent Kelly met one day while Barnes was having pizza at a restaurant Kelly co-owns in downtown Macon and struck up a conversation.

They became fast friends.

Now the two men are going into business together and opening a restaurant of their own.

La Bella Vita: Italian Kitchen is targeted to open May 1 at 347 Cotton Ave. in Macon.

“This is a sit down, make reservations, if you like, Italian, full service restaurant and bar,” Barnes said. “We started talking about different business opportunities and really what is a passion of ours and everything just kind of fell into place.”

Their vision for the restaurant is based on a shared love for downtown Macon.

“I don’t even know how to explain it,” Barnes said. “It’s just alive and you can feel it.

“It’s got history. It’s got good friendships. It’s really a great place ...We love to cook. We love the business. We love the atmosphere. We just want to give back as much as have been given to us.”

Traditional Italian favorites

At La Bella Vita, customers can expect traditional Italian favorites such as bruschetta and calamari for appetizers and chicken Marsala and shrimp scampi for main dishes.

The new restaurant is located across from Fatty’s Pizza 344 2nd St., the first of two Macon locations of the popular pizza eatery owned by Kelly and Chrissy Lee.

Barnes said he remembers what he had to eat the first time he met Kelly at Fatty’s, probably because the “Mother Clucker” chicken pizza featuring grilled chicken, bacon and a ranch drizzle remains a favorite.

“With Vincent being in the restaurant industry, we’ve talked for a long time that downtown Macon and Macon in general has just been a beautiful place, and there’s so much to offer, and I know that COVID put kind of a damper on a lot of what people could do and what they got out to do,” he said.

“But it’s coming back, it’s thriving back ... The one thing that we thought of that’s really nonexistent in downtown is really a good Italian, sit down restaurant. The opportunity came. We found the location. It was perfect.”

Barnes, an Alabama native, is a manager at the Amazon distribution center in Macon. He brings to the table a wealth of management experience.

He helped his late father, Sonny Barnes, with the family business, Barnes Heating & Cooling in Gadsden, Alabama. Donny Barnes also was in management for 16 years at Verizon before moving into logistics at a Goodyear Tire facility.

His niece and her husband, Misty and Jeff Webster, own two tavern-style restaurants in Alabama and are about to open a third.

This is Barnes first venture into the restaurant industry. He’s confident in his management background and in Kelly’s restaurant experience, noting the success of the two Fatty’s locations.

“They’re kicking all cylinders with that,” Barnes said.

While he does love to cook, Barnes said he’s not a professional chef, and he’ll leave that side of the business to Kelly.

“Mine’s more the management side of it, where Vincent’s is more of the back of the house cooking and managing the kitchen,” Barnes said. “We’re definitely doing it 50-50 for sure.”

New life

The location of their restaurant was most recently the Crave Scratch Kitchen, a casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic. The spot was previously home to a popular Chinese restaurant years ago.

In preparation of opening their new restaurant, Barnes and Kelly have been doing some renovation work that included redecorating and upgrading the bar.

“We have a back dining room that we’re going to use for conferences and also different activities … It’s got full media capability. It’s really nice,” Barnes said.

Barnes and Kelly are in the process of meeting with chefs and hope to finalize the menu within the next couple of weeks.

Whether the pizza that Fatty’s is known for will be on the menu is a “good question,” Barnes said. “Probably not.

“We don’t even have a pizza dish as of right now because we didn’t want to be in competition with another business that he owns. We want to be like a partnership. So, we may have some cross promotions with each other, but that’s little bit down the road.”

Operating hours are to be determined.

Barnes expressed excitement about their vision coming to fruition.

“It just seemed like God was opening up doorways for us every step that we took,” Barnes said. “So, we decided to take the big plunge and have gotten nothing back but good response from everybody so far.”

This story was originally published April 14, 2021 at 5:00 AM.