The old saying is that you can never go back. The truth is that you can go back, but things change.
Lots of my culinary roots go back to my upbringing in a very Italian community in NY. In my grammar school class there were 35 kids and 32 were Italian. My classmates included Tommy Palumbo, Patsy Fashetti, Georgy Deleo, Danny Monteforte, my best friend was Tony Ciafone… And yes I was: Paulie. Doesn’t everyone’s name end with a vowel? My other nickname was mayonnaise, which was more a tribute to my complexion than my culinary preferences.
One of the guys I grew up with became a quasi rock star. Timmy Cappello went on to be the “Sexy” Saxophonist that played with Tina Turner in her hey day and garnered fame for his role in the 1987 vampire film The Lost Boys. In his Wikipedia profile he delineates the complexity of where we grew up. We say we are from Silver lake, but our address was East White Plains. In reality, we lived in West Harrison. Confusing yes, but it was a great place to grow up and fantastic place to eat. But things change.
Timmy Cappello, the Sexy Saxophonist with Tina Turner
Many of the scenes of my youth evolved around an Italian restaurant and bar called Casserella’s. Susan and I went there a while back and it is now an upscale Italian restaurant called Lago’s.
It was a bit of a tell when the waiter introduced himself as Juan. My dad used to say that every waiter in a French restaurant in New York was really Italian. Today everyone working in an Italian restaurant in New York is Hispanic. This is actually a good thing, but things change.
Juan was great. He was well schooled on the menu. He even spoke New York Italian very well. On one my trips to Italy I realized that Italian of my youth (or as Cousin Vinny would say: “my yutes”) was very different than real Italian. With New York Italian, when you were cool, you cut off the vowels. Prosciutto becomes prosciutt. Mozzarella becomes mozarell. Juan’s Italian was very cool and it was music to my ears.
I explained that I had grown up there. He told me he had a guy about 90 years old come in and tell him that beers used to cost 10 cents. I explained that I wasn’t nearly that old. In my day the beers cost 33 cents each. You got 3 beers for a dollar and the bartender Eddy, would give you a fourth for free. So at a memory of a 25 cent per beer, I guess I am really old.
The food at Lago’s was actually pretty good. While memories usually make the food of your youth seem better, to be honest, the food at Cassarella’s was inconsistent at best. My buddy John Nangle was once working in the kitchen making salads when Cassarella’s got reviewed by the local newspaper the Reporter Dispatch (affectionately referred to as the “Distorted Repatch”). The reviewer cited John’s work that night by stating he had been served a very “Undistinguished Salad”. John explained: “What should you expect, no-one had ever told me that there was a difference between cucumber and zucchini”.
My son Brian recently with John Nangle. When Brian was 15 he had his first experience as a bar tender working with his Uncle John as a bartender at Graziella’s
Speaking of inconsistent, growing up we knew who the cook was each night. If Gracie was cooking you were in for a treat. If another cook was working we just drank beer. Actually, we drank beer every night, we just ate better when Gracie was cooking. I have been trying to replicate Gracie’s veal chop Milanese for years. No amount of beer could dull that memory.
I made a Pork Chop Milanese for a recent supper club that was inspired by Gracie’s creation. Distance may make the heart grow fonder, but things change. My Pork Chop Milanese might be different than Gracie’s, but it is pretty darn good and it is a great supper club dish.
Check out the recipe.
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