Virtual Gourmet

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IN THIS ISSUE
14 THINGS THAT WILL NEVER GET OLD
ABOUT ITALIAN TRATTORIAS
By John Mariani

NEW YORK CORNER
LOVE AND PIZZA:
THE WORLD OF NICOLA SANTINI TODAY
By John Mariani

NOTES FROM THE WINE CELLAR

MORE WOMEN LIKE TERRY WHEATLEY ARE
GETTING TOP ECHELON JOBS IN WINE INDUSTRY

By John Mariani

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14 THINGS THAT WILL NEVER GET OLD
ABOUT ITALIAN TRATTORIAS

By John Mariani

A few weeks ago I wrote about “Ten Things That Will Never Get Old About French Bistros,” and was prompted by readers to write the same about bistros’ Italian cousin—the trattoria. First of all, a trattoria is not a ristorante, which is (generally speaking) somewhat higher end, larger and refined, with, of course, higher prices. The word trattoria comes from the French traiteur as originally applied to medieval cook shops. Trattorias are small eateries with small menus and big flavors. And they don’t go in for anything trendy. Here are fourteen things about them to love.

● Trattorias are largely family owned and operated, often generationally, with the sons and daughters, even grand kids, working. This assures consistency and a familial attitude towards their guests.

● Trattorias focus on regional specialties, so in Rome you’ll invariably find the menu will include Roman dishes like bucatini all’arrabiata, cacio e pepe (right), alla carbonara, coda alla vaccinara, abbacchio (below) and others. And if the owner comes from outside of Rome, say Sicily or Abruzzo, he or she will feature the specialties of those native regions.

● Trattorias cook seasonally and, except for tomatoes (grown year round in the South), rarely will they make dishes with out-of-season ingredients. Hence, this spring you’ll find fragrant basil, mushrooms, baby lamb and dishes made “alla primavera” (“of the springtime”). In autumn come the white truffles and game dishes.

● Except for seasonality, trattorias don’t change their basic menu very much beyond offering one or two specials for an evening because a good ingredient was found that morning in the market. So, if you enjoyed that plate of linguine with clam sauce ten years ago at a favorite trattoria, it will likely still be on the menu, and just as you remembered it.

● There will always be bread on the table, usually already there before you sit down. There might also be breadsticks called grissini, or perhaps focaccia. While it’s okay to dip your bread in olive oil, Italians do not use butter on their bread, so don’t ask for it.

● The most varied part of the menu, often arrayed on a buffet table, will be the antipasti, which will contain everything from red peppers and marinated zucchini to fresh mozzarella and salami. Indeed, this is the principal way to eat your veggies in a trattoria, where side dishes of anything but spinach and potatoes are rare.

● While the antipasti may well be the savoriest items on the menu, every trattoria prides itself on its pastas as the glory of Italian cooking. The simplicity of the pasta sauces and the perfect al dente cooking of the pasta itself are paramount and allow the chef to compete in a big market by personalizing favorite dishes.

● Main courses are almost always very simple and unadorned. Fish will be grilled and graced with olive oil and lemon; meats and poultry will be grilled and served the same way; stews will usually be a daily special and be more complex but never gussied up on the plate. On the side may be polenta or potatoes, never, as in old-fashioned Italian-American restaurants, a portion of overcooked macaroni.

● No matter how casual a trattoria may be, it is most likely to have tablecloths, often checkered, even in a pizzeria. It is not an indication of formality but of hygiene and graciousness. (And pizza is rarely served in a trattoria, although that's changing.)

● While there’s no dearth of tourists eating at highly recommended trattorias, they are most frequented by locals who eat there with friends and family and order dishes they have grown to love over the years, which means the owners wouldn’t dare change a successful, popular recipe. You, therefore, should not ask the chef to “go easy on the garlic” or ask for your meat to be cooked well done.

● Service, as noted, is familial. Staff in trattorias love their guests, and, given the restricted menus, food can seem rushed out, but that’s because it’s served when it is ready and hot. Lukewarm pasta is considered a betrayal of national pride, so if the pasta plate is set before you, start eating immediately and do not wait for the rest of your party of six to get theirs.

●You do not have to tip in a trattoria (or a ristorante). In Italy the service charge is built into the price of the dish, so tipping on top of that is a nice but wholly unexpected gesture. If you do, then a few euros would be appreciated. There may be a minor coperto (cover charge) on the bill for bread and tablecloth.

● Desserts are an afterthought in trattorias. There might be a lemon tart or chocolate-hazelnut cake, but the gelato, sorbetto and biscotti are probably purchased up the street. Trattorias do not hire pastry chefs.

● Wine lists at trattorias were once banalities and the house wines (vini della casa) poor. These days any decent trattoria is likely to have a more interesting list, often with local wines featured, and, since the overall quality of bulk wines in Italy has improved so much, the house wine is going to go quite well with the cook’s food.

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NEW YORK CORNER

To read previous chapters go to archive (beginning with March 29, 2020, issue).

LOVE AND PIZZA

By John Mariani

Cover Art By Galina Dargery

THE WORLD OF NICOLA SANTINI TODAY

Some readers may find it interesting to visit the places, sites, and restaurants that are part of Nicola Santini’s story in Love and Pizza. The good news is that almost all of them are still open and easy to visit. Indeed, in most cases, as with the Milan museums, the condition of the artwork and the ease of visitation have been increased exponentially from Nicola’s time, and the improvement of sites like Yankee Stadium, Grand Central Terminal and the Bronx Zoo has been equally admirable. Even Nicola’s neighborhood of Belmont is now far more appealing and vibrant than it was in 1985.
Here then is a guide to the sites, restaurants, food, and people in Love and Pizza for those whose interest extends beyond the covers of the book.

THE BRONX

Christopher Postlewaite

     As described in the novel, the Bronx in the mid-1980s was quite divided between deterioration and reclamation. The more affluent sections like Riverdale, the solidly middleclass Country Club and Pelham Bay regions and other neighborhoods in the north Bronx held steady, but crime and drugs took their ravaging toll on the South. The crack wars of the 1980s turned neighborhoods into war zones that festered until the mid-1990s, when many of those involved in those gang wars had been killed off. But by the turn of the 21st century most parts of the Bronx were well on their way to a renaissance of multi-ethnic neighborhoods, culture, and family stability.
         Nicola’s Belmont neighborhood (above) had been protected from the blight and crime by the continuing presence of its Italian-American families, and, although the mob element in Belmont had diminished, it still staved off some aspects of urban decay in the 1990s and helped maintained a protective shield against the encroachment of the worst occurring elsewhere.
         Belmont in particular grew in stability and cleanliness, so that its restaurants and food markets began to receive coverage from the New York media, which came to regard the area as a far more authentic “Little Italy” than the tourist trap streets south of Greenwich Village, whose real estate had, by the 1990s, been bought up by developers from overlapping Chinatown.
        Since the middle of that decade Belmont and its main artery, Arthur Avenue, have flourished as a destination for tourists, who come as much to shop there as to eat there. Daily, buses from Manhattan, New Jersey, Connecticut, and elsewhere stop along Arthur Avenue to be immersed for an hour or two in a thriving Italian-American neighborhood—even if the area has in recent years been largely inhabited by Albanians, Slovenians, and Croatians, some of whom run the Italian-American restaurants there. Not a few tourists come looking for evidence of mobsters, as depicted in the 1993 movie “A Bronx Tale,” which took place in the troubled 1960s. They are always disappointed.
         The safety of the neighborhood is pretty much guaranteed; even in the bad times, Belmont was one of the safest precincts in New York, and now, along flanking Fordham Road, an increasing number of Latino families have stabilized that stretch of road all the way to the Hudson River.
        You can happily visit the Gothic-style Fordham University (above), where one of Nicola’s photo shoots for Willi takes place, and for aficionados of hip hop, you can still drive past 1520 Sedgwick Avenue to see where it all began.
         Along Arthur Avenue you can slurp raw shellfish from a outdoor counter at Randazzo’s Fish Market and buy baby lamb at Biancardi’s butcher shop (left). Around the corner they still cut your order of fresh pasta at Borgatti’s and you can see the original wood-fire baking oven at Terranova. Only recently did the Mt. Carmel Candy Store close; it was where Nicola would sip Bronx egg creams.
        The restaurant that most resembles Bella Napoli (which becomes Alla Teresa in the story) is Mario’s (below), set on Arthur Avenue since 1919 and still going strong. The only difference between the fictional and real restaurant was that while Mario’s always had great pizzas, the rest of its Italian-American food is far better than Bella Napoli’s was.
         Never have the Bronx Botanical Gardens been more spectacular—always packed on weekends—and the Bronx Zoo, New York’s largest, with its stunning Art Deco gates, is now one of the nation’s most modern zoological parks and animal research centers.
         Yankee Stadium, which had opened in 1923, was badly renovated in 1974, when Nicola knew it, then closed in 2008 while a wholly new one was built across the street, incorporating much of the architectural design of the beloved original, including the copper frieze and latticework trim. The new stadium opened in 2009, at the cost of $1.9 billion.

MANHATTAN

         Columbia University has grown greatly in size since Nicola’s time there, with many modern new buildings and a continuing expansion into four large blocks of Harlem. Hamilton Hall, where Nicola meets Prof. Saint John Smith, was named after Alexander Hamilton, and it has been refurbished in recent years to restore its McKim, Mead, and White neo-classical grandeur. The campus is easily accessible during the day, and the surrounding area of Morningside Heights—once extremely dangerous—is now well patrolled.
       Grand Central Terminal (left) underwent a monumental twelve-year restoration as of 1998, not least its glorious astrological ceiling that in Nicola’s day was darkened by grime, cigarette smoke and discoloration. Entire walkways and hallways were re-opened and skylights discovered after having been blocked out during World War II, when New York feared German bombers might fly over the city. The big Bulova clock and the huge Kodak photographic billboard that had been in the Terminal since the 1960s were removed during the restoration. Today the glistening, beautifully lighted Terminal is host to a bewildering array of retail stores, food markets and restaurants, and has more than 21 million visitors each year.
         The Metropolitan Museum of Art has since 1985 expanded into Central Park and added new wings and exhibition space not available to Nicola. In addition, tens of thousands of new art works have been bought or been donated to the institution. Fortunately, the stunning Neapolitan Baroque Crèche Nicola visits with Marco is still mounted each year and is for many New Yorkers a requisite annual visitation during the Christmas holidays.
         Downtown in Greenwich Village, the restaurant Da Silvano has closed but Il Cantinori is still open and is where they filmed an episode of "Sex & the City" (right).

MILAN

         While the historic center of Milan would be as familiar to Nicola and her friends today as it was when they went to school there, the city’s outskirts have been blighted, as in every Italian city, with ugly apartment and industrial buildings. But the inner core of the city has never looked better, been cleaner or richer than it is today.
         In wonderful contrast to the way Milan’s museums looked in 1985—poorly lighted, with masterpieces haphazardly hung and left unrestored for centuries—the Brera (left) and the Ambrosiana are now as superbly renovated as any in Europe, and careful restoration efforts (which the visitor can actually watch) are ongoing, so that the works of all the great masters now gleam as if they’d been painted in the recent past. The “Lamentation of Christ” by Mantegna, “The Holy Conversation” by Piero della Francesca, the theatrical “Finding of the Body of St. Mark” by Tintoretto, and the “The Supper at Emmaus” by Caravaggio are all now in pristine condition.
         Da Vinci’s “Last Supper” in the refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie, whose restoration work Nicola commented on, is now complete, though, sadly, the results are disappointing. For however careful and fastidious the restorers were, the condition of the painting was almost unredeemable by the time they started work on it. It is true that you can now see details in the mural that had long been hidden from view, but the patchwork nature of the restoration—inch by inch—was only able to repair so much. If you are visiting, make reservations as far in advance as you can (there are websites that can help with tickets) because only a very limited number of people are allowed into the room at set hours during the day.
        On my recent visit to Milan I went in search of the Museo del Cinema within the Public Gardens that Nicola visits with Giancarlo, but it was closed and its contents removed several miles from Milan’s center, to Viale Fulvio Testi.
         Of course, the vast Galleria Vittorio Emmanuele II still stands beside the great Gothic Duomo cathedral (right), and both have been resplendently restored, so that the church’s marble gleams as white as it originally was, and the Galleria’s walls and archways glow with colors once faded under centuries of neglect. The Galleria has also attracted a far higher class of fashion boutiques to its space; the cafes are still full of people drinking cappuccino, and the restaurant Savini, where Giancarlo takes Nicola for dinner, is still open, mostly serving people outside in good weather. It is still very expensive, the menu very classic.
         If Nicola and her friends returned to Milan today, they would find all their favorite restaurants open: Le Langhe is still popular and Paper Moon looks pretty much the way it did in 1985 (below), run by the same family. The pizza is as thin, crisp and delicious as ever. Just a few yards away on the same block is Bagutta, which went into decline after 2010 and closed last year.
    More than ever, however, Milan has become a fashion capital, and the well-lighted, beautifully designed boutiques are spread throughout the same streets like Via Montenapoleone (below) and Via della Spiga that Nicola strode when the city’s reputation for fashion was building fast. As the fashion center has spread out, many designers now rent multiple store units, which change occupants often. For even if the stores don’t ever seem to have many customers, the brand names need to be manifest in that area.
         The Gran Sforza Hotel, where Catherine takes her friends for cocktails, is fictitious, though suggested by The Four Seasons Hotel that opened in a 15th century convent a few years later.
         The Principe di Savoia Hotel, where Giancarlo and Nicola spend their first night together, is now more deluxe, more beautiful, and better maintained and serviced than ever before, with one of Milan’s finest deluxe ristoranti, called Acanto.
         Incidentally, in Turin, Giancarlo takes our heroine to Ristorante del Cambio, which, as described in the novel, had by the mid-1980s lost most of its prior luster and was badly in need of refurbishment. Fortunately, that came in 2014 with a new owner, and the restaurant won a Michelin star that same year.
        In Paris, Taillevant, where Catherine meets Giancarlo for dinner, still reigns as one of the city’s finest classic restaurants.

CAPRI and NAPLES

Capri in season remains the overrun destination it has been for decades, with ferries arriving by the hour from Naples and Sorrento, disgorging tourists who spend the day then get back on the same ferries, laden with shopping bags and bottles of limoncello. The well-heeled still stay at the well-renovated La Grand Hotel Quisisana (left). The little trattoria where Nicola meets Marco is fictitious, as is the pizzeria in Naples’ Spaccanapoli.
In Naples the Galleria Nazionale di Capodimonte is still a repository for Italian and classical art.

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NOTES FROM THE WINE CELLAR

MORE WOMEN LIKE TERRY WHEATLEY ARE
GETTING TOP ECHELON JOBS IN WINE INDUSTRY
By John Mariani

     This Month, wine industry veteran Terry Wheatley, 67, became the first woman in history to take a major, multi-hundred-million dollar U.S. wine producer public, helping Vintage Wine Estates to launch a $690M IPO after entering into a merger agreement with London-based Bespoke Capital Acquisition Corp. Upon closing in May, the combined company will create a business with an enterprise value of $700 million to be named Vintage Wine Estates Inc. This will expand VWE’s current portfolio of over 50 wine and spirits brands and double its production capacity to 15 million cases/year with an expanded production capacity, high speed bottling line investment and new warehouse/distribution centers.
    While women still struggle to reach the upper echelons of the industry (a 2020 study by the Wonder Women of Wine and The Wine Nerd found nearly two out of three women think hiring in the wine industry is biased, with the same number estimating it will take 10+ years to reach equality in wine), Wheatley has been recognized as “Innovator of the Year” by Wine Enthusiast for her strategies to create, develop and market. Wheatley leads sales and marketing for the three Vintage business channels: wholesale, direct-to-consumer and business-to-business as well as Team Innovation, charged with analyzing consumer tastes and trends and responding with first-to-market wine products. She is also Chairwoman of the Board for CannaCraft, California’s second-largest cannabis company.
    Wheatley was hired by Vintage Wine Estates after she had such success with her own wine sales and marketing company, Canopy Management. Recently she appointed Jessica Kogan as Chief Digital Office to oversee all DTC channels and e-grocery omnichannel strategy for Vintage.
    In an interview by e-mail, I asked Wheatley what changes have occurred and what the future will be in marketing wines worldwide.

Q: At a time when the wine world is in such flux and there is a glut in the market, what does an IPO do for VWE?

The wine business is recovering from the disruptions of the global pandemic. In our business, on-premise and tasting-room sales were essentially shut down for a year. VWE is a diversified company operating in three well-balanced business channels that I like to call our three-legged stool: traditional wholesale, direct-to-consumer and business-to-business. Our direct-to-consumer segment has multiple channels that make up the business unit. While the tasting rooms were closed and our wine club sales softened, our Cameron Hughes brand, which is digitally native, our e-commerce, our tele-sales business and our relationship with QVC was able to fill the pandemic gap. Some in our industry who have been focused on restaurants and tasting room visitors are still feeling the effects of that loss in revenue. The capital from an IPO gives us the jet fuel to take advantage of acquisition opportunities as a result.

Q: What will you acquire?

A recent Silicon Valley Bank poll indicated out of the 10,000 wineries in the U.S., a little over half have interest in selling. Some may be owners who are ready to retire and don’t have a next generation to take over; others may be smaller wineries impacted by the pandemic ready to move on. Queries come in daily. Pat Roney, as the CEO and official “acquisitor” of VWE, has over a dozen proposals on his desk right now. We are looking for wineries and brands that fit into our portfolio—primarily in the premium sweet spot of $10-20, although we do produce, market and sell wine from $10 to $150.

Q: Wine sales to restaurants have plummeted and people loathe to go to stores. Where are sales happening in the U.S. and abroad?

One of the most significant shifts in consumer behavior due to the pandemic is the increased confidence and trust buying wine online and in other non-brick-and-mortar channels, such as tele-sales and television such as QVC—all channels that WVE has diversified into. Windsor Vineyards was the foundation acquisition for VWE in 2007 along with Girard Vineyards, which CEO and Founder Pat Roney has owned since 2000. So, we were poised to pivot quickly, helped by the acquisition of Cameron Hughes in 2018 and the management and best practices that came with it. That being said, we see traditional sales channels both in the U.S. and abroad coming back strongly as we move into pandemic recovery.

Q: Tell me about your background and how you rose to become president.

I’ve been in the wine business since I was 20 years old—going on 30+ years. I started at E. & J. Gallo, where I received my wine sales and marketing education. I left Gallo after 17 years and worked as SVP of sales and marketing at Sutter Home, now Trinchero Family Estates. I left Trinchero to form my own wine-brand creation and sales and marketing company called Canopy Management, which was acquired by VWE in 2014. I was appointed SVP of sales and marketing when Canopy was acquired, then promoted to President in 2018. With the upcoming IPO, I will become the first female president of a $200 million company to go public.
I am personally committed to mentoring young women and others—in and outside the wine business —and creating a culture of success, inclusion, creativity and innovation.

Q: How does Cannacraft dovetail into the wine selling business?

I’m the chairman of the board at Cannacraft, the second largest cannabis business in California. It’s a fascinating business parallel to the wine business in many ways. It’s an agricultural business with plenty of regulatory challenges. Both businesses make products associated with pleasure and relaxation. My leadership goal as chairman is to take Cannacraft to the level of where wine is at now in terms of branding and marketing—differentiating their many products in a way similar to wine. I believe there are many synergies between wine and cannabis. Our innovation team at VWE is working on wine and cannabis beverage concepts that fit into our mix that we would launch upon legalization.

Q: There are many women involved in owning wineries. Is that the case at the corporate level beyond public relations?

Yes, women’s leadership has been fully supported by the culture here at Vintage Wine Estates. Women currently hold a majority of seats on the senior leadership committee and are well-represented at the director and manager level across all functions, including Chief Digital Officer Jessica Kogan, who oversees all DTC channels and e-grocery omni-channel strategy and CFO Kathy DeVillers, who has been instrumental in the IPO.

Q: What are the developing markets outside the U.S.?

Our export business is a smaller piece of the sales pie, but is vibrant and growing. The LCBO [Liquor Control Board of Ontario], one of the largest purchasers of wine, is our #1 for volume and value and we continue to develop that relationship. Number two is Caribbean and Cruise, which is strongly rebounding from the impact of the pandemic. China is #3 for volume and value. Our infrastructure is well-established in China, with strong partners who help us manage the complexities. Girard Napa Valley has very strong prestige in the first-tier market.

MARIANI'S VIRTUAL GOURMET NEWSLETTER is published weekly. Publisher: John Mariani. Editor: Walter Bagley. Contributing Writers: Christopher Mariani, Robert Mariani, Misha Mariani, John A. Curtas, Gerry Dawes, Geoff Kalish, and Brian Freedman. Contributing Photographer: Galina Dargery. Technical Advisor: Gerry McLoughlin.