If your mouth waters at the thought of fresh, handmade pastas and sauces, panzerotti, timpanini and hand-pulled mozzarella, good news is here. A brand new Italian restaurant, The Place, officially opens Saturday with a plethora of homemade Italian specialties.

Located on Vernon Street in Downtown Roseville, The Place is the brainchild of Boston import, Michael McDermott and his wife, Moneka. Michael, or Mikey, as he is known to many of his friends, has been working on his plan to open his own restaurant after being employed as a chef in several restaurants on the East Coast. "I've had this idea in my mind for about the last three years," said Mikey, who moved to California in 2001 and has been working at the Roseville Post Office just across the street from the restaurant for the last six years. "I want The Place to be the 'Cheers' of California. This is casual dining and a spot where people can just come hang out."

Indeed, Moneka added, "Our goal with The Place is to make it be a comfortable spot, where everyone feels at home. We are all about family." Mikey said he is looking forward to being one of downtown Roseville's merchants.

"I really want to help bring some business to this area of Roseville," he said. "I specifically picked this location to try to do that." Mikey admits to being a hands-on type of owner. He said he tiled the floor, put up some of the restaurant's walls and even picked out the color and design for The Place venue.

In addition to the ambiance and atmosphere, which also features live entertainment during the weekend hours, the emphasis at The Place is definitely on the food. Morning hours patrons have their choice of fresh daily biscotti, cantuccini, cannoli and tiramisu baked every day by Moneka, the restaurant's pastry chef who has a degree in culinary arts and food biochemistry.

"We also feature artesian style bread Mikey makes for all our sandwiches and dishes and we take great pride in our pizza, which takes 48 hours for the dough to be prepared and then it's all baked in a 100-percent wood-fired oven," she said.

Handmade sausages, fresh toppings and a special cheese from Wisconsin that Mikey said the best pizzerias in New York use are what makes his pizzas special. "All the food we make is from family recipes I remember eating as a child," he said.