One of Cincinnati’s best-known Italian restaurants is coming to Mason. Pepp and Dolores, the Over-the-Rhine favorite, will officially open its second location on Monday, November 16, at the District at Deerfield, the restaurant announced.
“We’ve been preparing, perfecting, and polishing to bring this delicious Italian dream to life. Now all we need is you,” the Pepp and Dolores team shared on social media, in a post reported by WLWT via Dining and Cooking. The team said updates on reservations will be announced soon.
The original Pepp and Dolores opened in Over-the-Rhine in December 2019 as a casual Italian restaurant built around homemade pastas, wines and family recipes, and it has been recognized among the best restaurants in the Cincinnati area by OpenTable. The Mason restaurant is the brand’s first expansion beyond its original neighborhood in nearly seven years.
At the District at Deerfield, Pepp and Dolores joins The Eagle and City Bird as recent arrivals at the $150 million development, which also includes 101 Craft Kitchen, PINS Mechanical, 50 West and Jeni’s Ice Cream. The opening adds a destination-dining name to a Deerfield Township corridor that has been steadily adding restaurants and entertainment venues alongside its retail and office space.
For Mason and Warren County diners, the arrival means one of the region’s most booked Italian tables is now a short drive instead of a trip downtown — and for the restaurant, a suburban second act that tests whether an Over-the-Rhine neighborhood favorite can draw the same following in Deerfield.
The expansion follows a familiar path for Cincinnati dining names: build a devoted following at a single urban location, then carry the concept to the northern suburbs, where Mason and Deerfield Township sit at the center of one of the region’s fastest-growing residential and office corridors. For Pepp and Dolores, the move puts the restaurant within an easy drive of Mason, West Chester, Loveland and Springboro — communities that have long traveled downtown for special-occasion Italian dinners.
The restaurant’s format travels with it: a casual Italian menu built on homemade pastas, wines and family recipes, the same formula the Over-the-Rhine original has used since 2019. The team has not yet detailed the Mason menu or hours beyond the November 16 opening date, and reservation information is still to come.
What happens next: the Mason location opens Monday, November 16, at the District at Deerfield. Diners should watch the restaurant’s channels for the reservation announcement the team said is coming soon — if the Over-the-Rhine original is any guide, the first weeks of tables will go quickly.