New Oshkosh Italian eatery nearly prepped for grand opening

Executive Chef Cristiano Bassani said he is excited to bring his 30 years of experience cooking in Chicago to his work at Truffle Pig in Oshkosh. Submitted Photo

Staff

July 14, 2025

OSHKOSH – A historic building in downtown Oshkosh is getting a progressive facelift after a local company saved it from a New York auction block in the nick of time.

In 2022, the former Oshkosh Northwestern building – located at 224 State St. – was due to go up for bid the night before Team SNW Director Kelsie Lally said the company would buy it.

“The building was going to go up for auction at an auction house in New York the next day,” she said. “The owners found out, and they purchased it because they wanted to restore it… They were nervous that somebody else [would] purchase [it, and] they wouldn’t know what would happen to the building. [The project] evolved [from there].”

Right away, Lally said the Team SNW owners knew “they wanted to put a hotel with a restaurant” in the building – starting with the restaurant.

“We were going back and forth on the type of restaurant, but we landed on Italian,” she said. “[The owners] love good food, so they have a few restaurants here in Oshkosh already.”

And, with a passion for doing business along Lake Winnebago, Lally said the historic Oshkosh Northwestern building acquisition fit nicely into Team SNW’s portfolio.

Now, Lally said she and the rest of the team are gearing up for the grand opening of the city’s newest Italian restaurant, Truffle Pig – expected later this summer.

Local company Team SNW, Director Kelsie Lally said, purchased the former Oshkosh Northwestern building the night before it was scheduled to go up for auction in New York. Submitted Photo

Simple, fresh cuisine

In order to bring an elevated flavor of Italian dining to the city, Lally said the restaurant needed an executive chef with the resume to deliver on that idea.

Cristiano Bassani said he spent 30 years working the culinary scene in Chicago before moving to Northeast Wisconsin “about a month and a half ago” to take the job at Truffle Pig.

“It was a big change for me,” Bassani laughed. “But what I like about it is I [have] met such great people around this area… It’s like a big family, and, so far, everybody’s getting along with everybody… and I can’t wait to fire up the kitchen.”

Drawing on his total of four decades in the industry, Bassani said over the last month, he’s worked to finalize Truffle Pig’s up-and-coming menu ahead of the restaurant’s anticipated grand opening.

“We already got our menu done, the wine list is already done, [as well as] the cocktail [menu],” he said. “We’re ready to go, hopefully, by the end of August.”

However, due to the nature of the cuisine he’s crafted for Truffle Pig’s menu, Bassani said the opening date could get pushed back to allow for ample time to train both the kitchen and front-of-house staff.

“We’re going to need a few weeks of training, because we’re going to have a pretty big team – especially in the front of the house,” he said.

Whether they julienne peppers or take reservations, Bassani said properly training its staff will be the key to Truffle Pig’s success – especially in Wisconsin’s northeast region.

“I think our biggest [challenge] is to train people, so that’s gonna be a big key for success,” he said. “[Oshkosh] is not like a big city – like Chicago, New York or Miami – where you [have] a lot more people around you [and] where [people] come in every day asking for a job. Here we need to find the right people to train.”

Executive Chef Cristiano Bassani said Truffle Pig – Oshkosh’s newest fine dining and Italian eatery set to open this summer – will focus on using fresh products of Italian origin. Submitted Photo

Bassani said compared to other, local Italian eateries, Truffle Pig will offer a simple menu focused on using fresh products to craft his dishes.

“[I’m] probably going to change the menu every season depend[ing on] what’s in season,” he said. “All our fresh pastas… our own focaccia bread and all the desserts are going to be made in-house. Pretty much all the products we’re going to use [are also] going to [be] Italian products – starting from all the cheeses and all the pastas [to] all the sauces.”

Marketing challenges

Exploring the local restaurant scene of the city, Bassani said he has yet to find something he believes is similar to what he’s about to introduce in Oshkosh.

However, he said he also recognizes good food is only half the battle in establishing a successful restaurant – the second being setting the right tone with the customers, both in service and aesthetics.

Lally said Truffle Pig is the third restaurant she’s worked on in the area, and of the three, “this one’s a little bit more elevated.”

Starting with a building estimated to have been constructed “in 1912 or 1914,” she said it was an uphill climb to transform the “former livery [and] automobile shop” into a modern restaurant space.

“Think [about] a 50-by-150-foot building [with a] concrete floor, brick walls, steel trusses – as bare as bare can be – and currently there’s a series of 15 groin vaults [and] a barrel vault down the hallway,” she said. “It doesn’t look anything like what it did [when we started]. It’s special, and I would say there’s nothing that would come close to looking like it for sure in the state.”

Hannah Skaar, the lead marketer and an interior designer with Ameena Designs assisting on the Truffle Pig project, said one of the biggest challenges she experienced working on such a historic building is keeping its renovations under wraps until the restaurant’s big reveal while simultaneously advertising its imminent grand opening.

“I think the biggest challenge… [is] ensuring the success of it while still keeping everything secret,” she said. “We really want everything to be a surprise.”

A challenge, Skaar said, that proves difficult when renovating a widely known, historic building such as the Oshkosh Northwestern.

Though Lead Marketer Hannah Skaar said they are keeping renovations under wraps until Truffle Pig’s grand opening, its executive team believes there is nothing comparable to it in the city. Submitted Photo

“We always have people looking in the windows at us when we’re in meetings or just working in the lobby,” she said. “People are very curious, because it’s down on State Street – which is one of the main streets in downtown Oshkosh.”

To calm some of the city’s anxious excitement for Truffle Pig’s grand opening, Skaar said she’s been utilizing social media.

“We’ve been [showing] little glances and sneak peeks on our Instagram and Facebook, but overall, the big reveal is meant to be when the restaurant actually opens,” she said.

Another challenge Skaar said she’s faced is how best to communicate the unique and authentic vibe of the forthcoming restaurant over various forms of media.

“I think a huge message we wanted to get across during this process [was]… the level of food that’s going to be [served], the quality [and] the authenticity – because there’s nothing like that in the area,” she said.

Even in a culinary capital like Chicago, Bassani said he’s never seen a restaurant with the aesthetics offered at forth-coming Truffle Pig.

“I spent 30 years in Chicago, and I don’t even think the City of Chicago’s got a restaurant like this,” he said. “It’s just amazing, [and] it’s going to be gorgeous.”

And, the work in the historic building won’t end with Truffle Pig or its anticipated hotel, as Lally said Team SNW plans to renovate additional spaces for various retail stores – yet to be determined – in the building’s now conjoined neighboring structure.

“There’s a building right next to [the 224 State St. building] – previously addressed 216 State St. – that we combined…,” she said. “The restaurant is phase one and then we’ll continue on with construction of the hotel and the retail spaces.”

For updates on the Truffle Pig’s anticipated grand opening, visit its website, trufflepigwi.com, or its aforementioned social media pages.

TBN