DINING
just two days later – with the help of findapriest.com (yes, that’s a thing) and potluck style dining concept – because as Gianfranco says, “we are resilient, we’re New Yorkers.” It is this mindset which has pulled them through the most difficult of times and allows them to focus towards an even more fruitful and flavorful future”. In addition to Il Gattopardo, this dynamic dining duo also owns and operates The Leopard at des Artistes and Mozzarella & Vino. They might have built a famed restaurant empire, but this husband-and-wife team continue to run everything like one big family. Gianfranco, the patriarch of that family, grew up in Naples, Italy and started working as a busboy at a hotel in Capri when he was just a 14-year-old boy. It was at the tender age of 17, upon working at the Dorchester Hotel in London, that he realized just how big his restaurant dreams really were. “I understood then that this was going to be my life and passion.” This hardworking hospitality entrepreneur started working around the world until getting a contract at Disney World’s Epcot in 1984. He finally moved to New York ten months later where he worked at the well-known restaurant Bice and eventually got the chance to bring the flavors of his homeland to his new home. Gianfranco made his first real – and mouthwatering - mark in 1990, when he opened his own restaurant at MOMA. The museum’s board of trustees felt that it was time to try something new, allowing him to introduce a real fine dining restaurant called Sette MoMA in the iconic institution. “MoMA was really the first museum of its kind to understand the concept of incorporating a high-end dining establishment,” says Paula. “If you go to other museums now there is usually a cafeteria in addition to a nice restaurant, but this wasn’t the case in the 90s.” Perhaps the sweetest thing to come out of this story, aside from the desserts they served, was that Paula, a secondgeneration Italian who grew up in her mother’s home country of Brazil, met Gianfranco while she was a graphic design student at FIT and earning extra money as a hostess at Sette MoMA. This former international model now likes to joke that she went from “eating salads every day to selling spaghetti!” Now a midtown food mecca located on West 54th Street, Il Gattopardo, located across from MoMA, is known for its regional and authentic fare with the freshest, most seasonal ingredients. Their chef and partner, Vito Gnazzo, incorporates products from Italy as well as local and sustainably focused purveyors to create a culinary journey
that will bring you back to Italy with every bite. Vito knows a little something about finding the best variety of all things Italy as he hails from Felitto in the province of Salerno, part of the Campania region of Southwest Italy, where our very own Christopher Pape’s grandmother also comes from! “Everything here is based on the human touch,” says Gianfranco. “We love when people say that this is the closest thing to a real Italian experience. It’s a sense of great pride for us that we can reproduce so far away the same kind of passion about Italian food. We change menus seasonally, about twice or three times a year, and according to the market. This includes items that are only in season for a short time, like white and black truffle. We must be very careful now with pricing because everything is skyrocketing so logistics are complicated for distributors. For us this means that we have to make sure everything can be delivered every day, because if it’s on the menu, we must be certain that everything will arrive. Our menu showcases dishes from the South of Italy, which means mostly fish and vegetables. For us, vegetables aren’t just a side dish. We use shellfish with pasta, rice and couscous, which is part of a daily Mediterranean diet. The fish we use is from a company in Italy and are raised in an environment better than the ocean! We come from a culture where the normal way of doing things was to get vegetables several times a week and cook everything from scratch. Modern life took us away from that philosophy, but we tend to look back. We also emphasize the importance of food not just tasting delicious, but also the necessity of eating something healthy.” In addition to this sought-after spot, they also have a successful catering company that regularly works with Italian fashion houses including Cuccinelli, Kiton and Gucci, as well as the Italian Embassy, Consul, Ambassador, and Cultural Institute, plus Italian entrepreneurs and art galleries due to their deep relationship with MoMA, which remains strong. They especially host many postscreening receptions and after parties for the museum in their private downstairs room which feels like an oasis in the midst of a bustling city. In 2011, the growing restaurant group opened The Leopard des Artistes on the charming, treelined 1 West 67th Street in an equally charming and historic building. This pricey project turned out to be a worthwhile risk – just ask their loyal clientele who are very pleased with
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