• Courtesy | File: Daria Bishop
• Gold Restaurant; chef-owner Charles Spock

The former Little Morocco Café space at 294 North Winooski Avenue in Burlington will soon be home to a shiny new restaurant.

Charles Spock will open Gold Restaurant the week of July 15, serving a small, constantly changing menu of "modern-style Italian food," the chef said.

The menu will be on the "light and clean" side, Spock said, "not lasagna or pizza." Dishes will feature handmade pastas, including ravioli. A version of Waterfall Beef — a Thai and Lao specialty — with 'nduja chile crisp, lime and fresh herbs "moves away from carpaccio but doesn't leave Italy," Spock said.

Gold Restaurant's Italian influence mirrors the fare Spock cooked at Stowe's Cork Restaurant and natural wine shop. A previous co-owner of Richmond's Hatchet Tap and Table and the Big Spruce, Spock was most recently head chef at Winooski's Four Quarters Brewing.

The restaurant's name comes from Robert Frost's poem "Nothing Gold Can Stay," with its theme "that these experiences we have are very fleeting," Spock said. "Hopefully people get a little bit of something new each time they come in."

After renovations, the 30-seat space now includes a small bar. Gold Restaurant is still waiting for its liquor license, but the team will offer mocktails in the meantime; later, expect natural wines and classic cocktails such as Pimm's cups, variations on a French 75 and Negronis. Hours may vary, Spock said, to accommodate the restaurant's small staff.