Dan Butler’s Toscana turns 35, a legacy that helped shape Wilmington’s dining scene
By Pam George
When Dan Butler signed the lease for the Trolley Square space that would become Griglia Toscana, he paused. The initial term was 20 years, which meant it would run through 2011. “I remember how silly that sounded,” the chef recalls. Back in 1991, any year beginning with a “20” seemed impossibly far away — the stuff of high-tech gadgets, robots and sleek futuristic architecture.
“Moreover, the Delaware native had worked in Washington, D.C., Florida and Europe since graduating from the Culinary Institute of America. “I thought, ‘Hey, you know, we’ll give it a run, and when that’s over, I’ll go back to D.C. and get a job as a chef or line cook,’” he told himself.
That didn’t happen. Griglia Toscana — now Piccolina Toscana — not only renewed its lease but this year, it is celebrating its 35th anniversary. In an industry in which even acclaimed restaurants vanish within a few years, Toscana’s longevity reflects Butler’s ability to adapt to a changing marketplace while preserving the restaurant’s spirit.
Butler has never been afraid to tamper with success. The restaurant’s first name changed three times, although Toscana remained constant, and today most patrons simply call it Toscana. There have been expansions, renovations and reinventions.
Throughout it all, Toscana has served as the backdrop for wedding showers, anniversaries, birthdays and graduation dinners. Joel and Tina Plotkin had their first date there on Feb. 14, 1994.
“I credit Dan Butler and his crew for making it so special,” Joel says. “Just like Toscana, we are still around.”
Meanwhile, Butler has long given back to his native city. He helped create City Restaurant Week, scheduled for April 13-19 in 2026.
A Homegrown Success Story
The youngest of five children, Butler was raised at 11th and Broom streets in Wilmington and attended St. Anthony of Padua Grade School and St. Mark’s High School. He was 16 when he watched a Today show segment on the Culinary Institute of America, which noted that hospitality companies recruited directly from the school. He was intrigued.
His path began in the dish room at the Hotel du Pont. After graduating from the CIA, he started his professional career in Washington, D.C., then moved on to Miami, Tampa and Atlanta. It was during his time at Tiberio in Washington, D.C., an upscale Italian restaurant that opened in 1975, that he developed a love for Italian cuisine that was far more than red gravy and pasta. The restaurant was one of the capital’s premier power-dining destinations. A 1990 Los Angeles Times article noted that lunch for two could cost $100 or more.
Mayor Daniel S. Frawley, a friend of the Butler family, convinced Butler to open a restaurant in Delaware. In fact, Frawley wanted to partner with him on a business outside the city limits. But Butler saw opportunity in Trolley Square. “He said, ‘Whatever you do, it will be successful, and a successful restaurant will make Wilmington better,’” Butler recalls.
Breaking New Ground
Butler chose a space in Rockford Shops, where he created an Italian restaurant unlike anything Wilmington had seen. The layout was sophisticated and urban. Butler had columns installed in the dining room purely for design, which vexed the contractor, who’d painstakingly created an open room with an exposed kitchen. (The columns disappeared in a later renovation.)
“I remember the pink tablecloths and the black-and-white checkered floors,” says Paul Bouchard, who started as a server shortly after opening. “I remember strapping on the white bistro apron and getting ready for service. In those days, we did line checks to make sure everyone was properly dressed and groomed, with clean hands and fingernails.”
From the start, Butler was committed to authenticity. He wrote the menu in Italian even though many customers couldn’t pronounce Griglia, much less the names of the dishes. Butler, who speaks several languages, insisted that the staff master the correct pronunciation. Try as he might, Bouchard could never quite get the word gnocchi right.
Griglia Toscana held its friends-and-family event on Feb. 13, 1991, giving the staff and equipment a trial run. “We have a lot of friends and family,” Butler says wryly. He encouraged his siblings to bring guests and asked everyone to make reservations.
They did not.
“It turned out to be a big party — no one was in their seats,” he remembers of the night. Eventually, everyone sat down at once, turning a restaurant dinner service into a chaotic banquet. The following night, Valentine’s Day, the restaurant opened to a huge crowd. “Every night since then has been relatively simple,” Butler quipped.
In March 1991, Al Mascitti reviewed Griglia Toscana in The News Journal. He admired the wood-burning pizza oven, inspired by Wolfgang Puck’s artisan pizzas at Spago. “Toscana is the first restaurant in northern Delaware that understands ‘gourmet pizza’ can be more than broccoli with provolone,” he wrote. “Toscana toppings include smoked duck with arugula and mascarpone — not because it sounds weird but because it works.” He also praised the risotto, veal and lamb chops grilled with fresh oregano, rosemary and tarragon.
In 1992, Griglia Toscana won Critic’s Choice for Italian. Its contemporaries included Positano, Clemente’s, Vincente’s, La Casa Pasta, Carucci, Amalfi and Caffe Bellissimo. That same year, Butler expanded the brand with Toscana To Go, also in Rockford Shops.
The Place to Be
With its wide-open dining room — minus those decorative columns — Toscana quickly became a place to see and be seen, attracting influential figures in business, politics and society. That did not change. Bouchard remembers when then Vice President Joe Biden dined there and Secret Service agents “stared down the line,” making sure the food was safely prepared. The restaurant also drew celebrities. In 1996, Butler told a reporter that comedian Tim Conway ordered some of the menu’s more avant-garde dishes and “really knows his wines.”
Butler also remembers when Joan Rivers visited while she was in nearby West Chester, Pennsylvania, to appear on QVC. To satisfy her dietary preferences, staff dashed to Acme for an undisclosed item. They also fed her dog, which stayed in the car.
“She was a hoot,” Butler says. “I got a call the next day saying she’d mentioned Toscana on air, which was awesome.”
Later, while attending a trade show in New York, Butler and friends ran into Rivers on the sidewalk. He reintroduced himself, but there was no need. She remembered Butler’s portabella mushroom dish.
He developed it after family friend Jim Angelucci of Phillips Mushroom Farms brought him an oversized crimini mushroom that the company planned to market. Butler instinctively marinated and grilled it. “They tasted like steak,” he says. “They were insanely popular.” Angelucci later put the recipe on the packaging. (Phillips uses the spellings “portabella” and “crimini.”)
Keeping Things Fresh
Five years after opening, Toscana got its first major update, designed by Butler and former server Scott Sullivan. The restaurant closed briefly in August 1996 and reopened as Tavola Toscana. The pizza oven was removed — demolished by jackhammers — to create more space, and the walls were painted in Tuscan gold tones. A table between the entrance and kitchen became a stage for antipasti and desserts.
Butler worried about how customers would respond. “Toscana had been very, very successful, and we were scrapping everything to start all over again. It was nerve-wracking,” he says.
He took another gamble in 2001, when the renovated restaurant became Toscana Kitchen + Bar, reflecting a move toward more relaxed dining. By then, being labeled a “special occasion” restaurant could be a liability. The colors were brighter, the mood more approachable and a new entrance led past a banquet room turned lounge. The pizza oven returned. “I missed it,” Butler says. So did the guests.
Nine years later, Butler again felt the urge to freshen the concept. Piccolina Toscana initially emphasized small plates: tapas with an Italian accent. “I have some of the swag from the different eras of Toscana; it’s like the Madonna of restaurants,” says Amanda McGuigan Powell, who worked there from 2000 to 2012. “They changed their look, kept up with the times, and have always been top tier. I went the other day, and it’s still amazing.”
The makeovers were hardly surprising, given that more restaurants had come online since 1991. Butler was responsible for some of them. In 1998, he opened Deep Blue Bar & Grill in downtown Wilmington, a bold move at a time when the district’s revival was still in the early stages. Bouchard moved over to manage it, and Robert Lhulier, a former Toscana server, became its first chef. Butler later partnered with Bouchard and Michael Majewski on Brandywine Prime Seafood & Chops in Chadds Ford, which opened in 2007.
The More Things Change
Yes, Toscana has evolved. The servers’ neckties are gone, although some still wear the long aprons. But the foundation is the same. Several dishes survived every transition: breadsticks, beef carpaccio and tortellini are among them. (When Butler once tweaked the tortellini sauce, customers protested loudly enough that he restored the original recipe. It was either that or field requests to make it the “old way.”)
However, the main reason why Toscana has successfully weathered economic downturns, shifting dining habits and a pandemic is Butler himself. Seeing him in the dining room or kitchen still gives guests a warm sense of reassurance, a sentiment that was appreciated when he chose to stay open on 9/11 to be a gathering place for shell-shocked patrons.
“Dan has never lost the simple joy of cooking people dinner,” says Majewski, still his partner at Brandywine Prime. “Most great chefs have that somewhere in them — along with the joy of having family around the table, connecting and enjoying a meal together.”
That sense of family extends to the staff. Butler is skilled at building a cohesive team, Bouchard says. “I don’t know that I’ve ever worked at a place with more camaraderie,” Bouchard says. Front- and back-of-house employees sat down together for the family meal. When it snowed, the staff grabbed a libation, jumped on four-wheelers and headed to the Brandywine Valley to go sledding.
Butler has also been a familiar face in the community. In 1996, he received the Delaware Jaycees’ Outstanding Young Delawarean Award. He has long been involved with the Ministry of Caring, helping design the kitchen for a child care center, serving as a guest chef, and hosting a fundraising dinner for about 170 people. He has also supported Meals from the Masters, the brunch fundraiser for Meals on Wheels Delaware.
“Both of those organizations feed people,” Butler says. “As a chef, that’s near and dear to me.”
He also helped launch City Restaurant Week, in part to support Deep Blue and other downtown operators. “We had some synergy then,” he says. The first participating restaurants included 821, Café Mezzanotte, Conley Ward’s Steakhouse, Costa’s Grill & Wine Bar, Deep Blue, Harry’s Seafood Grill, Hotel du Pont, Kahunaville, Mikimotos Asian Grill & Sushi Bar, National Restaurant and Washington Street Ale House. Today, Butler says, the event has become a reliable revenue generator.
When people look back on Toscana’s history, Butler hopes they will see it as one of the restaurants that helped transform the area’s dining scene. That may be Toscana’s true legacy. Not only did Toscana survive, but it gave Wilmington a restaurant willing to change with the times without losing its Delaware roots or sense of hospitality.
Above: Butler has freshened Toscana’s approach many times through the years. Here he is in the dining room in 2019. Photo by Butch Comegys.
Pam George has been writing about Delaware’s dining scene for two decades, and in 2023 received a Community Impact Award from the Delaware Restaurant Association. She is also the author of Shipwrecks of the Delaware Coast: Tales of Pirates, Squalls and Treasure, Landmarks & Legacies: Exploring Historic Delaware, and First State Plates: Iconic Delaware Restaurants and Recipes. She lives in Wilmington and Lewes.