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The building that formerly housed The Wheelhouse is now occupied by the well-known Springfield chef Shawn Kraft, owner of Nonna’s Italian Cafe.
Kraft signed the lease on 307 S. Jefferson Ave. around February 2026 and it will be the primary location for his other business, Meals by Monica. Essentially, the chef needed a bigger kitchen to continue running both businesses, which were previously housed under one roof.
Meals by Monica is a Springfield-based service where Kraft and his team prepare fresh, seasonal gourmet meals and deliver the meals straight to customers’ homes. The business started in 2006, and Kraft purchased it a few years ago, according to previous Daily Citizen reporting. It’s essentially a personal chef experience delivered weekly to your door. Kraft says he focuses on unprocessed food and clean recipes.
Coming along for the ride is Lorenzo Antignano, owner of What’s Alfredo?, which is transitioning to the new name Lorenzo’s Italian Experience. The company, known as an at-home private chef service, will rent space from Kraft for its headquarters, and it also plans Italian cooking classes and more. The two chefs have a strong relationship and will likely co-host events and dinners in the new space as well, Kraft said.
Antignano said he was lucky to work out a way to lease some of the space from Kraft. His company is in the midst of a huge transition, including the rebrand, and the downtown space will be the first headquarters for Lorenzo’s Italian Experience.
Shawn Kraft, owner of Nonna’s Italian Cafe, has leased the building at 307 S. Jefferson Ave. for his second business, Meals by Monica. (Photo by Ryan Collins)
“It’s been a huge opportunity for me and to kind of have my own little home base,” Antignano said. The chef added that renting a fully equipped kitchen has saved him a lot in costs that he otherwise would have leased or purchased.
Even with the savings from the lease agreement with Kraft, starting a brick-and-mortar has been a costly endeavor, Antignano said.
“I don’t have an unlimited budget,” he said. “I’m trying to prioritize the right things to where I can get started and start welcoming people in, and then eventually add on to things.”
Lorenzo’s Italian Experience will continue offering private, at-home chef services. But with the new space, Antignano said he will add Italian cooking classes. Then there will be gourmet dinners offered by reservation only.
Antignano, born and raised in Italy before moving to the U.S. as a high school exchange student in 2012, aims to officially launch the experience with a few events at the end of September.
The Italian culinary experience business also plans to dip its toes into the world of serving family to-go meals.
“I want to do, like, family meals — like a whole tray of lasagna, for example,” Antignano said. “And people can come in and they can pick up something.”
Antignano said even though his business will be completely separate from Kraft’s, the two chefs will likely hold some dinners together, as they have done in the past. Antignano is especially looking forward to days when the two can experiment in the kitchen together.
“We might still do some events together, but we also will use the kitchen to, like, play around,” Antignano said. “Like come in a day and make like … a whole pork belly and roast just for fun. So, just experimenting new recipes.”
Shawn Kraft. (Photo provided by Nonna’s)
Kraft is also looking forward to the same thing. He says the two chefs, together, will have a “little Italian kitchen laboratory” on their hands.
Kraft has owned Meals by Monica for about three-and-a-half years and all that time it operated underneath Nonna’s. With renting the new downtown space, Kraft is also moving the business out of the Nonna’s umbrella.
“It’s a transition with Meals by Monica,” Kraft said. “It was all just part of Nonna’s, and I’ve actually separated the businesses into two.”
Ryan Collins is the business and economic development reporter for the Springfield Daily Citizen. Collins graduated from Glendale High School in 2011 before studying journalism and economics at the University of Missouri-Columbia. He previously worked for Bloomberg News. Contact him at (417) 849-2570 or rcollins@sgfcitizen.org. More by Ryan Collins