Stellini
ITALIAN RESTAURANT Twenty-Five Years Of The Family Biz? Don’t Fuhgeddabout It…
Our 25th Anniversary! Stellini’s is Italian. Very Italian. So Italian that you might feel like you’re on a movie set or in a place where there might be one welldressed, quiet guy in the back who wears a pinky ring, everyone whispers to and is known to take care of… well… “things.” Maybe that happens and maybe it doesn’t. Maybe you should mind your own business and enjoy your meal. But, whatever happens in Stellini, it is most likely as far from a highly imaginative writer’s manufactured Soprano-esque musings as possible and centered on the one thing that has kept the restaurant in business for the last twenty-five years: the experience. Joe Pesce—like Joe Pesci, but not— bought the place twenty-five years ago without any prior restaurant experience because his daughter, Elise, and his son-inlaw, Kyle Parlagreco, “worked there and needed a job.” Kyle, Stellini’s manager and resident chops buster, maintains that Joe simply wanted free food. Pesce agrees that nothing has changed in twenty-five years.
Jokes aside, the trio found the opportunity to improve on an existing establishment. Twenty-five years in the same place on an Island that, at times, seems to change with the tides has proven them correct. In two decades they’ve only had two chefs. Currently Chef Larry Schneider, culinary graduate, oversees menu items like the Veal Saltimbocca, Zuppa di Pesce, Lamb Shank Osso Buco, Filet Mignon, Clams Casino, Tortellini Carbonara and meat-based Lasagna among many other appetizers and entrees. “The menu says Italian,” relays Kyle with a significant degree of confidence, “but we do it any way we want to do it.” “We run the restaurant as a family owned restaurant,” Kyle continues, “not a corporation. Basically, everybody gets along, you do the right job, everybody’s happy, we’re all friends. We’re a small, Jersey-style place with consistent, quality food. Without exception, the brain trust that runs Stellini is proud of what they do; they should be, they’ve seen a lot of the
competition come and go over the years. And, without exception, they have a fantastic sense of humor that can only come from a family as close-knit as their own. Stellini, at 15 Executive Park Drive, off Pope Avenue, opens at 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday. A three course Early Bird is available from 5 until 5:45 p.m. Reservations are strongly recommended. Specials happen nightly. For information call (843) 785-7006 or check out www.stellinihhi.com. What’s changed over at Stellini in twentyfive years? “My age, my sanity,” jokes Kyle. Pesce, still whimsical but a bit more existential, relates this feeling on the matter: “The fact that Kyle is still my son-in-law after all that time, I think, speaks very highly of us here.” Indeed. Kind of like a father investing in a restaurant because he believes in his daughter and her husband. When you’re in the family, you’re in for life. That’s consistency. That’s quality. That’s why customers keep coming back. ATASTEOFHILTONHEAD.COM
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