There are plenty of changes to the recently reopened Centre Street Cafe in Jamaica Plain. There’s the new dinner menu: Italian. The new owners: the Tres Gatos team. The new executive chef: Brian Rae, an alum of Rialto. The redone interior: dark hardwood floors, exposed Edison-style light bulbs and white walls adorned with Italian tile and pressed tin. But the first question that worried passers-by ask is “Will Marc be there?”

Fear not, as the changes to the 34-seat spot don’t extend to the waiter who’s been greeting customers for 17 years—or to the rest of the service staff, for that matter. And co-owners Keith Harmon, David Doyle and Maricely Perez-Alers knew not to mess with brunch, either.

“We really wanted to have it continue to be an American-style, diner-style brunch. That’s what was popular here. And we don’t feel the need to deviate strongly from that. It will be the basics of pancakes and waffles,” Doyle says. “Our hearts are really with the dinner menu, but we’re also serious breakfast, brunch, lunch fans.”

While customers will be comforted by the familiar truck-stop breakfast on the menu, the dinner atmosphere and cuisine will be drastically different. The music will turn down, the lights will dim and Italian cuisine will fill the plates. Rae’s menu of shareable dishes is split into four sections: snacks (cicchetti) such as figs and grapes with ricotta, starters (medio) such as swordfish belly conserva with sunchokes and black olives, pasta such as lasagna pizzocchieri and larger plates (maggiore) such as stuffed short rib braciole. The pasta section in particular will always be evolving, but a couple of standouts have already been identified on the opening menu. Doyle points to the lasagna, which incorporates riced potato and kale from Stillman’s Farm, a source for much of the menu, approximately half of which is vegetarian. And Harmon extols the process behind the fusilli con fungi.

“Brian dries mushrooms and integrates that with some of the flour in the fusilli, so when that dish comes to the table, it’s a very aromatic take on mushrooms,” Harmon says. “He’s doing enormously clever things.”

Harmon hopes his customers can see that same cleverness in the wine list, which is “80 to 85 percent” Italian. “My passion—shared very much with David—is approachable, unassuming and delicious wine. We’re going to do a carafe program, and that’s very European,” Harmon says. “I’m frankly so excited to work with Italian wine again because it offers such a huge variety of styles and ability to work with food.”

Indeed, for Doyle, Perez-Alers and Harmon, passion and personal taste have fueled the entire project. “We really badly wanted Italian for our own benefit, because we love it,” Harmon says. “And we really badly wanted to keep brunch, because we love it.”

Centre Street Cafe, 669A Centre St., Boston (617-524-9217) centrestreetcafejp.com