Sea Pines. Sea Pines, on Hilton Head Island, won out because they offered him all the golf he could play while employed as their chef. Thus began Fulvio’s twenty-five year golf outing on the island. Of course when he wasn’t hitting the links, he was building a set of stateside culinary fans. As the island began to grow in the early ‘70’s, Fulvio recognized the need for fine dining outside the handful of exclusive resorts. The opening of his first restaurant, La Pentola, began a period of entrepreneurship during which he owned and operated four restaurants including the successful, Fulvio’s, which many of his current clients remember. Time on the resort island was marked by the busy tourist season from about March through October, and the relative calm during the coldest months. Eventually Fulvio longed for a market where his business didn’t have to hibernate for a third of a year. At the same time, his family was growing and he wanted to ensure that his daughters were exposed to more than the frenetic and dormant extremes that the Low Country island had to offer. When there is an important decision 42 | Columbia Home & Garden
Ristorante Divino offers primarily Northern Italian cuisine.
to make, the pastoral game of golf often serves to clear the mind. So Fulvio took six months off, ostensibly to play as much golf as he possibly could, but also to find a place to relocate. His wife, D’Ann, was from Falls Church, VA, so naturally Fulvio considered Washington D.C. On a trip up there from Hilton Head, he stopped to visit old friend Franz Meier at a place called Columbia’s in our capital city’s AT&T building. A three-week visit helping out at the restaurant turned into a nine-month stint. Visions of D.C. faded, and Fulvio considered settling in Columbia. Some old customers from Hilton Head tipped the scale by suggesting that he open a restaurant in Columbia. As fate would have it, the space occupied by La Petit Chateau on Devine Street became available, so Fulvio leased it and named his new venture Ristorante Divino after the street on which it was located. Although the restaurant was a
hit, Fulvio was never completely satisfied with only sixty seats and no bar. After a few years, he decided to move his operation to a Gervias Street warehouse in the up-and-coming Vista area. He kept the name, but redesigned the interior to streamline the kitchen and accommodate more diners. He added a bar for ambiance and to give people a comfortable place to wait if they happened to have late reservations. Having now been in the new space for thirteen years, Fulvio has had time to perfect the primarily Northern Italian cuisine, featuring dishes such as gnocchi di patate and costoletta di vitello piemontese. In the past, he has tried swapping out items on the menu to give his clients some variety, but he received so many requests for the missing dishes that he now rarely changes the menu. However, he does develop numerous daily specials that enable him to offer seasonal fare and specialties such as Di-