NYC restaurateur Giuseppe Bruno launching private – Business News
Wall Street honchos famously spend large bucks to affix private golf equipment in Manhattan – however they’re not often shelling out for the food.
It could also be a totally different story when Giuseppe Bruno opens his first members-only venue on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. That’s as a result of Bruno is the proprietor of a trio of eateries which have turn out to be legendary among the many metropolis’s foodies – Sistina, Caravaggio and San Pietro.
These beloved Italian eating places have quietly catered to the Wall Street, political and leisure elite for years. It’s a household business in all the precise methods; Bruno’s brothers Gerardo and Cosimo play a function, primarily on the Midtown eatery San Pietro, whereas his daughter Nicolina serves as his proper hand at Sistina and Caravaggio on the Upper East Side.
Giuseppe Bruno, proprietor of Sistina, desires to show the legendary restaurant into a high-end supper membership. Leonardo DiCaprio and Lloyd Blankfein are followers. Gil Fontimayor / NY Post Design
Now, the household is trying to compete in opposition to the likes of Manhattan’s high social golf equipment – Zero Bond, Casa Cipriano, Soho House, and San Vicente – by turning Sistina into a high-end supper membership. The principal restaurant will nonetheless be open to the public (thank god!). But within the coming weeks, Bruno plans to create new areas devoted to private eating, wine tastings, and private gatherings at Sistina’s multi-room townhouse on East 81st Street.
“Hospitality has always been about creating relationships,” Bruno tells me. “For more than 40 years, our guests have become part of the Sistina family. This next chapter allows us to deepen those relationships while continuing to welcome new generations of guests.”
He hasn’t labored out the pricing but, however take it from me: It gained’t be low-cost. That mentioned, my guess is that it will likely be price it.
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The wine checklist is among the many best in Manhattan, even when most of its bottles are out of the price vary of your humble correspondent. It’s why people who can respect (and afford) good food and drink keep coming back, and why Bruno thinks he can take the business to a different degree by turning Sistina into a supper membership for these with discerning tastes.
“This is not about closing our doors,” Bruno mentioned. “It is about opening new ones.”
Bruno and his brothers got here to this nation from southern Italy 40 years in the past, began as waiters and door males till they pooled their money. They inherited their cooking skills, they inform me, from their mother back within the outdated nation. They opened Sistina in 1983, the place they started to grow what has turn out to be one of the best cooking and wine experiences within the metropolis.
Giuseppe Bruno and his daughter Nicolina with the Bidens in September 2024. Giuseppe Bruno
Now, Giuseppe is betting he can compete for the bold-face names in a membership setting. While Manhattan’s swankier private golf equipment are frequently featured within the gossip pages, the Bruno spots stay more low-key although equally spectacular in phrases of their clientele.
At any given night time, you’ll be able to see the likes of Wall Street titans like Jamie Dimon, Larry Fink, Lloyd Blankfein, Ken Langone and Dick Grasso chowing down on the Brunos’ upscale Neapolitan delicacies.
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Leonardo DiCaprio is a fan. So are Joe Rogan and Mike Bloomberg. Brad Pitt had a date night time at Sistina final yr together with his gal pal Ines de Ramon.
Full disclosure: I’m a fan of all three locations, a fan of the rabbit; it’s a staple of the area my household comes from exterior of Salerno, and the place the Bruno brothers have been born. Last yr, whereas mangiare on some, I used to be seated at Sistina simply a few tables away from Joe Biden, accompanied by the previous first Lady Jill Biden.
The former president dined on some consolation food of freshly made spaghetti pomodoro – proper after dropping out of the 2024 race for the White House.
