Three Orange County chefs are betting that Irvine's office corridor has an appetite for serious Italian food. Tifosi Pizza + Trattoria, a new concept from Zach Scherer, Frank DeLoach, and Drew Adams, is slated to open this fall at Centerview, the Irvine office destination managed by EMMES Realty Services of California LLC, bringing New York-style pizza by the slice, house-made-bread Italian sandwiches, California-inflected trattoria dishes, craft cocktails, and a curated wine list to 2000 Main Street.

The Concept

The restaurant's signature move is what the team calls "New, New York" pizza — a style built on multi-day-fermented dough and premium ingredients designed to make the crust as memorable as the toppings. The broader menu draws from Italian regional cooking and New York Italian classics filtered through a California sensibility. A 1970s-inspired interior, two expansive patios, and a deliberately relaxed atmosphere round out a space meant to serve everything from a fast weekday lunch to a post-work spritz with colleagues. "Pizza is arguably the greatest lunch food invented by man," Scherer said. "And there's nothing like Italian food and a spritz after work with your colleagues."

Scherer and Adams bring credibility from Darkroom, their Santa Ana restaurant that earned a spot on the Los Angeles Times' 101 Best Restaurants list — a signal that the Tifosi team isn't approaching Italian-American comfort food casually. Lunch and dinner service will be available, with takeout and delivery options from day one.

Why Office Landlords Are Betting on Food

For operators considering mixed-use or office-adjacent locations, the Centerview model offers a useful case study in restaurant-driven hospitality strategy. EMMES has assembled an independent dining lineup at the property that includes Rise Bagels — which earned recognition at BagelFest West — alongside tapas concepts, Japanese cuisine, and specialty coffee. The goal is to create all-day foot traffic that benefits both tenants and restaurateurs, turning a corporate campus into a genuine dining destination for the wider Irvine community.

"Centerview is more than a place to work; it's a place where people can connect, discover great local restaurants and enjoy amenities that make their day more rewarding," said Justin Nguyen, executive vice president of asset management for EMMES. The property's proximity to the 405 Freeway extends that reach across Orange County, giving incoming restaurant operators a built-in audience of office employees, hotel guests, and local diners.

For independent restaurant operators evaluating real estate, the arrangement illustrates how landlords with an active tenant-outreach strategy can meaningfully reduce the cold-start challenge. Scherer noted that EMMES actively helps connect restaurants with the property's tenant base. That kind of landlord-operator partnership is becoming a more prominent factor in restaurant site-selection decisions as competition for quality foodservice real estate intensifies in suburban office markets.

Tifosi will open next to The Goldfinch, another Centerview dining tenant, further anchoring the property's food-and-beverage cluster.

Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.