Seven years ago Joe Cannistraci and Mike Guerra opened Enoteca La Storia, a Los Gatos wine bar, restaurant and wine retail shop. The patio and bar are always hopping, with locals sipping exciting, international wines and noshing tasty small plates. Now they’re bringing the popular wine and food menu to San Jose’s Little Italy neighborhood.

Say hello to Entoeca La Storia Downtown, opening in early September. The neighborhood is a fitting home, reflecting the owners’ Italian heritage. Developer Barry Swenson purchased the vintage 1900’s bakery and the Enoteca team transformed it, expanding the concept by adding pizza ovens for New York style-pies and a soccer-themed sports bar, with beer and Italian cocktails. Think classic negronis, boulevardiers, amaros, limoncello; you won’t find trendy craft cocktails here.

Pay attention to the decor details. Cannistraci did much of the work himself, from refinishing the concrete floors and painting walls using a Venetian plaster technique to installing a linoleum-like wainscoting and applying and removing a silver metallic glaze three times, creating an impressive antiqued effect on the bar and wall panels. Original wood paddles used for making bread in the former bakery found during the renovations are on display. The main dining room features a large marble L-shaped bar and custom-made maple butcher block table tops; framed soccer jerseys line the sports bar walls. A courtyard patio will open spring 2018.

Two pizza ovens behind the wine bar are a focal point, and the Enoteca team takes pizza seriously. Cannistraci has fond memories of pizza growing up in New York, but not the by-the-slice stringy cheese kind. He sought out John Arena of Metro Pizza, renowned for his dough and his square Sicilian pies, to help shape Enoteca’s program.

Arena calls himself the pizza “rain man,” but we’re calling him the pizza whisperer. He’s giving the kitchen crew a five-day master class on pizza history and traditions, including the importance of long dough fermentations (for more complex flavors and textures), how to use their hands to extend the dough, what are the proper baking techniques and how to stay patient. Arena’s doughs can take five days to be ready.

Those pizzas will join Enoteca’s menu of crostini, focaccia, pasta and panini. Look for homemade cannelloni filled with ricotta di buffala, baked rigatoni, beef-pork polpette and panini topped with porchetta and cipollini onions or a muffaletta-style concoction with mortadella, finnocciona and proscuitto.

The San Jose Enoteca will be open daily from 11:30 a.m. 320 W. St. John Street, San Jose; www.enotecalastoria.com.