Ky  grew up in Williamsville, New York. At age 19 she traveled to Italy to meet her relatives, who own a restaurant in Sicily. That’s when the notion of owning her own restaurant came about. After graduating from the university of Buffalo, Kyleena grabbed a backpack and over the course of the next eight years, traveled to more than 62 countries. She eventually returned and ended up in Vail, where she set about learning everything she could about running a restaurant. Spending winters in Vail, working at Sweet Basil & The Game Creek Club and summers in the Hamptons, New York working at Pino Luango’s Sapore Di Mare, and Gar Wood’s in Lake Tahoe, California, she felt she had acquired the knowledge she needed to open her own restaurant.