From the Antipasto to the Zabaglione: The Story of Italian Restaurants in America

From the Antipasto to the Zabaglione: The Story of Italian Restaurants in America

2nd Edition

Mike Riccetti

Copyright Mike Riccetti 2011-2012

Published by Tempus Fugit Press at Smashwords

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We had been strolling through Greenwich Village…and quite naturally we wound up at a small, inconspicuous Italian restaurant in Bleecker Street where certain wonderful dishes, from the antipasto to the zabaglione, may be had by the wise for little.

- Mrs. Fiske: Her Views on Actors, Acting and the Problems of Production, 1917

Table of Contents

Introduction

New for the Second Edition

About the Author

The Story

The Italian Restaurant, an American Institution

The First Italian Restaurants in America

The Italian Restaurant Evolves as Immigration from Italy Increases

Italian Restaurants in Bohemia

The 1920s Brings Restrictions on Wine and Italians

Elsewhere in the Country….

Italian-American Cuisine Takes Root

Italian Restaurateurs Did Not Always Serve Italian Food

Pizza Pie

The Curious Case of Creole-Laden New Orleans

San Francisco, Plenty of Great Restaurants and Plenty of Italians

Italian Restaurants and Their Spiritual Base, New York, Hit Rock-Bottom

New York-Based Food Journalism Becomes Even More Influential

Northern Italian Restaurants Arrive in This Country

Inspiration from Italy

Italian Restaurants Become More Italian

New York Bounces Back

Is Authentic Better? What is Authentic?

Notable Italian Restaurants Outside of the Two Largest Cities

The Italian Steakhouse, Frank Sinatra, and Other American Peculiarities

Sandwiches, More Italian Gustatory Contributions

Espresso, that Most Italian Manifestation of Coffee

Just Desserts

More Good Italian Restaurants than Ever

Italian Restaurants in New York Catch up: the Rise of the American Chef

Chains, Too Numerous to Ignore

Check, Please

Notes

Recipes

Veal Scaloppine – Fior d’Italia

Veal Parmesan – Mamma Leone’s

Biscuit Tortoni

Shrimp Sauce – Mamma Leone’s

Joe’s Special – Original Joe’s

Risotto con Fughetti e Fiori di Zucca – Valentino

Uovo in Raviolio – San Domenico

Spaghetti Primavera – Le Cirque

Chicken Vesuvio – Harry Caray’s

Steak Pizzaiola

Two Minute Calamari Sicilian Lifeguard Style – Babbo

Chicken Bryan Texas – Carrabba’s Italian Grill

Introduction

This book, rather, booklet is part of a larger book entitled, Eating Italian in America – The Story of the Country’s Favorite Food, from Red Sauce to White Truffles. More accurately, this is part of a larger book project, as Eating Italian in America is not yet finished. Its work remains at a standstill as I decide how to proceed with it.

The idea for the book came to me in the first half of 2008. The investigation into this surprisingly broad subject has been progressing in fits and starts since then. This booklet is somewhat of an excerpt of that broader project, and one that I was using to show off the work-in-progress. It was written in the summer of 2010, subsequently updated. I thought to make it available as an electronic book because I was stuck in my attempts to complete the rest of the book, and believed that it might be a good idea to have this rather self-contained portion available because it is a good read, and might be of interest to legions of fans of Italian food and dining. These restaurants have provided a tremendous amount of enjoyment across the country for well over a century, after all.

The result, this booklet, is about a third or less of what I intend to eventually cover; there is a lot more to Italian food in this country than the story of Italian-themed restaurants. But, it is an appealing tale in its own right, and one that has not yet been fully told. The amount of research done for a broader outline, with much of it contained in this relatively brief now 35,000-words-or-so edition, should be quite evident. Hopefully, not too evident, as it is meant to be a fun read, not just for those attracted to the history of food, but nearly everyone who enjoys reading something in addition to a menu.

This fairly concise tome follows the food of the Italian immigrants from port cities, Bohemian enclaves and the early cheap, table d’hôte eateries through the appearance of spaghetti and meatballs and the development of a recognizable Italian-American cooking, with which America fell in love, to the introduction of fine-dining then alta cucina, sleek trattorias, regionally inspired spots and beyond. It is an enjoyable saga, the history of Italian restaurants in America.

These establishments have been more influential than most realize. Italian restaurants have introduced foods and dishes, and codified Italian preparations for diners and home cooks.¹ The osso buco, veal Parmesan, saltimbocca, Caesar salad, tiramisu and many others you might have prepared at home are not the result of any Italian home-cooking tradition but are dishes that first appeared in restaurants and made the transition to the home kitchen. The restaurants at the cutting-edge – the focus a fair portion of this story – have introduced dishes and products that are imitated and translated by the other establishments. It might take a decade for their creations that have struck a chord with the public to filter all the way down, maybe less in this hyper-connected world, but the famed, truly innovative restaurants usually have an influence well beyond the customers they have served.² The direction of Italian food in this country has been set largely by these places.

A good portion of the action takes place in New York, specifically Manhattan. As the point of entry for most immigrating Italians, it was also was where many stopped, as the city has long had a greater number of Italians than any other metropolitan area in the country. Coupled with the fact that New York has been the nation’s leading restaurant city – save for a decade or so – since at least the first half of the 19th century when New York was Manhattan, it should not be surprising that much of the story of the Italian restaurant in America is the story of the Italian restaurant in New York. Its importance stretches well beyond the spread New York-style pizza to all types of Italian restaurants.

Well beyond the five boroughs, the range of types of Italian restaurants is indicative how much a part of the American landscape these are: pizza joints, sub shops, Italian delis, panini purveyors, espresso stops, Italian ice stands, gelato shops, Italian-themed wine bars, and full-service restaurants at every level of formality, ambition and price. But, one of the most interesting things about Italian restaurants in this country is that hardly any are truly Italian.

New for the Second Edition

A dozen recipes have been added for the second edition on the recommendation of restaurateur Piero Selvaggio who thought recipes could provide a more visceral connection to the food discussed. I agreed; there is a reason why recipes appear in most books dealing with restaurants, and food, in general. The recipes I have selected are representative of long-loved dishes served in Italian restaurants in this country, or popular items that are indicative of the style of restaurant at a particular place and time. These were chosen, also, to be useful for readers; the recipes should lead to tasty food, even with a minimal amount of cooking faculty.

About the Author

Though his family roots are in Chicago, Mike Riccetti, through a coincidence of fate, was born in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco and afterwards lived near the base of the George Washington Bridge and belonged to the same parish in Bergen County, New Jersey as the mother of Frank Sinatra. A graduate of both The University of Texas at Austin and Cornell University, he is an experienced food and drink writer and editor for the Zagat Survey. A frequent traveler to Italy in recent years, Riccetti lives and works in Houston, where a few good Italian restaurants can actually be found.

The air was thick with the scents of garlic, onions and Parmesan. It was also loud with song – specifically, opera – Frank Bruni, New York Times, at Tommaso in Brooklyn in 2006³

The Italian Restaurant, an American Institution

Italian restaurants have been an especially beloved fixture in America for at least a century. Featuring flying pizzas, slippery strands of spaghetti paired with plump meatballs that most have savored since childhood, tomato sauce ladled and consumed by the pint, garlickly and buttered toasted bread quick to leave a grease stain, tender slices of veal, gooey eggplant Parmesan, gregarious owners, the air filled with Sinatra and Martin or Verdi and Donizetti, a lively and comfortable dining room, generous mounds of food, copious amounts of wine….one from this cluttered group of images might be the first evoked in the average American concerning Italian food. There is much than more that, of course. Italian restaurants come in many guises these days, adapting to an ever-changing and -growing dining landscape, if seemingly always well-suited for the ever-growing waistlines. Today there are various different types that wave the banner of Italian food: sleek trattorias advertising a regional cuisine, national chains serving Italian immigrant fare, Italian grilles, long-lasting family-run favorites owned by a second- or third generation, Italian steakhouses, pizzerias, creative fine-dining temples that rival the top Michelin-starred restaurants in Italy, and even the humble hoagie shops.

In one or more of its manifestations, Italian restaurants remain a common sight across the country. Serving as an introduction to Italian food for many, these have encouraged life-long infatuations, not just for the food served in these, but for food in general. Italian restaurants have also helped to broaden the palate of countless diners. This is probably especially so for Italian-Americans, who explored beyond a familiar base. With about 30% of diners claiming Italian as their favorite cuisine, new Italian-themed eateries continuing to open from coast-to-coast, and even French and resolutely American restaurants serving pastas and risottos, this popularity shows no sign of abating, even as Americans become more sophisticated and far-ranging in their dining habits.⁴ Reflecting that, Italian restaurants are even better than ever. These are also more diffuse and diverse, and continue to evolve. Casonsei, crudo and culaletto might be more frequently used than carbonara and cannoli in the savvy diners’ lexicon, one that began decades ago with a few terms like spaghetti and spumoni.

The First Italian Restaurants in America

Spaghetti and spumoni weren’t served at the first Italian restaurants in this country. These were opened by the 1860s in the big port cities like New York, New Orleans and San Francisco. Immigration from Italy totaled roughly 70,000 in all the years prior to 1880,⁵ mostly from the northern Italian regions of Liguria, Piedmont, Lombardy, Veneto and Tuscany.⁶ These newcomers were largely craftsmen, merchants and entrepreneurs and their families. The restaurants and food stores they founded existed to serve the rather small immigrant communities while providing an ongoing livelihood for their proprietors. This usually necessitated attracting non-Italians. The early restaurants served straightforward fare inspired mostly by the home-cooking of their northern homes, soups, fish, and roasts, likely buttressed by additional meats and seafood that were more available and affordable in the New World. It was not exactly what they had at home. The cooking had to be adapted to local ingredients.

The future menu staples of spaghetti and spumoni were unknown to the first restaurateurs unless they had spent time in Naples. Italy in the late 19th century was newly united and had nothing approaching a national cuisine. There were scores of cuisines that varied from town to town and region to region. From the extremes of the peninsula, the foods could be dramatically dissimilar. As great as the differences are, the foods of the many regions and cities were much closer to each other than to those of other cuisines. The foods of Genoa were much different from that of Palermo, and even nearby Turin, but these would have held a level of similarity to any other Italian fare that did not exist with the foods of Hungary, Germany, or America. Though there was not – and still is not – a national Italian cuisine, the phrase Italian cuisine or truer to the vernacular, Italian food still made sense.⁷

The earliest restaurants and those in the ensuing decades were not conscious replications of eateries in Italy. In theme these might have reflected the simple osterie or trattorie that served the small number of travelers in Italian cities and towns. The food was dependent upon the new locale and whims and skills of the proprietor and chef.