Ask a few regulars on Peoria what happened to Mosto and you'll get a shrug. Ask what's inside the old Freya space at 3410 S. Peoria now and most will say Malfi Enoteca, correctly, without realizing those two names describe the same building, and in a real sense, the same restaurant that never actually opened under its first name.
That mix-up says something true about how Brookside's dining strip works right now. It isn't turnover in the way people usually mean the word, storefronts going dark and staying that way for years. It's the same small circle of Tulsa restaurant people building, renaming, and rebuilding inside two specific addresses on The Village, the dense commercial run of South Peoria Avenue between 32nd and 41st Streets that anchors the neighborhood. Knowing who's actually behind the changes tells you more about where Brookside's food identity is heading than any list of new menu items ever could.
From Mosto to Malfi Enoteca
In October 2024, Tulsa World and NewsOn6 both reported that a new Italian concept called Mosto was moving into 3410 S. Peoria, the space vacated by Freya Nordic Kitchen. Chef Sheamus Feeley, who'd already built a name downtown with Noche Woodfired Grill & Agave Bar, explained that the word referred to the fresh-pressed grape juice used in winemaking. The plan paired Feeley with Elliot Nelson, founder of the McNellie's Group, on a menu built around rigatoni a la vodka, arancini, and a chopped salad with salumi and fresh mozzarella. Coverage at the time targeted a late November or early December 2024 opening.
That restaurant never opened under that name. When the doors finally did open, in January 2025, the sign read Malfi Enoteca, and the concept had already expanded to an Oklahoma City location before Tulsa's version served its first plate. Same chefs, same building, same rough menu, different name by the time a customer could actually walk in and order.
If you've eaten there and only ever known it as Malfi, you haven't missed anything. If you've been telling friends to try "that new Italian place, Mosto," you can point them to Malfi Enoteca instead.
A Second Project, One Block South
A block away at 3535 S. Peoria, a separate project took shape with a different partner. The building had sat as a former Pei Wei before word spread in late 2025 that Feeley was coming back to Brookside, this time without Nelson and instead reuniting with chef Marco Herrera, his original collaborator from Noche. Herrera had spent the previous year as Director of Culinary for the Michelin-starred Fonda Fina Hospitality Group in Denver before returning to Tulsa.
The new concept, announced as Little Belly, targeted an April 2026 opening under a banner the pair built together called Sobre Mesa Hospitality. By this summer it was open and drawing coverage from TulsaPeople and NewsOn6's Flavor of Oklahoma segment for what Herrera describes as a "traditionally untraditional" take on Japanese-American izakaya food, built around dishes like buttered corn ramen and an "Okie-nomiyaki" made with smoked brisket and mustard barbecue sauce instead of the traditional scallion pancake filling.
"There's nothing about Little Belly that is traditional," Herrera told TulsaPeople this summer.
Little Belly runs dinner nightly starting at 5 p.m., with a late-night menu kicking in around 9, built with the restaurant industry's own after-work crowd in mind.
The Two Addresses, Side by Side
| Address | What closed | What was announced | What's actually open now |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3410 S. Peoria | Freya Nordic Kitchen | Mosto (Feeley + Nelson, fall 2024) | Malfi Enoteca, opened January 2025 |
| 3535 S. Peoria | Pei Wei | Little Belly (Feeley + Herrera, announced late 2025) | Little Belly Izakaya, open now under Sobre Mesa Hospitality |
What Two Buildings Tell You About the Whole Strip
Two data points aren't a trend by themselves, but the pattern is specific enough to matter if you eat on Peoria regularly. Two projects at 3410 and 3535 S. Peoria involve Tulsa restaurant people associated with Noche, McNellie's, and Sobre Mesa, along Brookside's already established food corridor. Noche itself carries weight worth knowing: it was named one of America's Best Restaurants in 2024 by the New York Times and earned a James Beard Award semifinalist nomination for Best New Restaurant in 2025. Those honors are part of the context for the restaurant names associated with the two Brookside addresses.
These two projects, by themselves, don't signal a neighborhood losing its dining identity. The rest of the strip backs that up. Oren, tucked inside Center 1 on Peoria, has held its spot as a Mediterranean-leaning dinner and brunch destination, complete with a patio fireplace and its Sunday "Ambergers" pop-up. Bin 35 Bistro and Charleston's have anchored their corners of the strip for years without any of this churn. The changes are concentrated in two specific buildings, not spread across the whole corridor.
If you've noticed a name change on a storefront and assumed the neighborhood's food scene is unsteady, the opposite reading fits the facts better. The two addresses show how a restaurant's name can change between its announcement and opening.
The One Weekend Already on Your Calendar
Whatever's cooking at either address, the neighborhood's biggest annual food-and-family event doesn't depend on any of it. The Brookside BooHaHa, a Halloween parade and street festival that's run for more than 30 years, returns Saturday, October 24, 2026, from 9 a.m. to noon. The parade itself, the part that shuts down foot traffic from 45th and Peoria down to 33rd, starts at 11 a.m. and typically draws more than 10,000 people into a stretch of the neighborhood walkable enough to make that number feel manageable rather than chaotic.
Vendor booths, a costume contest, and kid zones set up along the route each year, timed for a Saturday morning that Brookside families already treat as an unofficial neighborhood holiday. If this is your first BooHaHa, plan on parking off Peoria and walking in. Free parking runs along the avenue and in nearby lots, but the crowd fills both fast.
The Takeaway for Anyone Who Actually Lives Here
None of this changes what makes Brookside worth living in day to day: the walkability along Peoria, the River Parks trail access a few blocks west, the mix of 1930s bungalows and newer builds on the residential streets just off the commercial strip. What it does change is how you read a closed sign or a new awning going up. At 3410 S. Peoria, for example, Mosto was announced before the restaurant opened as Malfi Enoteca. Following both the address and the name helps make sense of what actually opened.
If you're weighing a move into Brookside, or you already call it home and want a clearer read on what a neighborhood this actively invested in means for your own property, Linda Smalley can walk you through the residential side of Peoria Avenue with the same attention this stretch gets from the people cooking on it. Let's Connect.
