At first glance, you might expect a restaurant called Villa Mozart to serve Austrian or German food, given the provenance of its namesake. Yet the reason why it’s perhaps Fairfax’s top location for Italian cooking lies in the story of its chef. Coming out of culinary school, Andrea Pace’s first job was at the Villa Mozart restaurant in Merano, Italy, and resolved to one day open his own place of the same name.

After working in New York, then locally at Café Milano in Georgetown and Fiore de Luna in Great Falls, he finally got the chance to open his own dining room in the heart of Fairfax. The name? You guessed it, Villa Mozart. The restaurant is living up to its Michelin-starred inspiration in Merano, too, as Pace is turning out inspired Northern Italian cuisine.