Wall Street hangout San Pietro that became a – Business News
When the Wall Street elite needed a place to regroup after the devastation of 9/11, they didn’t head to a personal resort suite or some nondescript workplace building. Instead, many gathered at a restaurant owned by a household of Italian immigrants.
San Pietro is a cozy, elegant eatery on East 54th Street simply off Madison Avenue that has long served as a kind of demilitarized zone for bankers and CEOs. It’s a place the place brutal rivals break bread, do offers and discover common ground as they did following the terrorist assaults.
Much has occurred in Gotham over the previous quarter century: A succession of mayors, a rebuilding of downtown Manhattan, a financial disaster, Covid lockdowns and Donald Trump, a native real estate developer shifting into the White House.
At the Bruno brothers’ San Pietro restaurant, you possibly can see Wall Street honchos like BlackRock’s Larry Fink eating with ex-Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack. Gil Fontimayor / NY Post Design
One factor that hasn’t modified is San Pietro. On any given lunch hour, you possibly can see Wall Street honchos like BlackRock’s Larry Fink eating with John Mack, the legendary former CEO of Morgan Stanley. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon nonetheless dines there as does Bank of America’s CEO Brian Moynihan.
And don’t be shocked in the event you discover members of the Trump household there, together with the president himself, sharing a desk together with town’s prime real estate titans.
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Run by a duo of brothers from southern Italy, Gerardo and Cosimo Bruno, the place nonetheless serves as a testomony to their tenacity, creativity and the superb food that comes out of their kitchen.
“We’ve been here for more than 30 years,” Gerardo Bruno tells me. “It hasn’t been easy but thank God for our loyal customers. They stayed with us through it all.”
What retains prospects coming back is the food. It’s not low-cost, thoughts you (that is Midtown Manhattan, after all). But Bruno’s menu nonetheless options the best of the healthy Mediterranean diet, the food they grew up eating in a blue zone of the Italian boot the place people dwell to grow to be centenarians.
San Pietro homeowners Gerardo, left and Cosimo Bruno. The place nonetheless serves as a testomony to their tenacity, creativity and the superb food that comes out of their kitchen. Gerardo Bruno
Everything from recent Branzino to do-it-yourself pastas, soups, and rabbit – one of my favorites. You can get a good steak and a actual eggplant parmesan, not that gloopy fried dish lined with breadcrumbs, sauce and mountains of cheese.
“Our mother taught us how to cook and how to make it both healthy and delicious,” Gerardo tells me.
Still, business hasn’t been straightforward, significantly of late. Many prospects have left Midtown, with corporations like BlackRock relocating to Hudson Yards on the West Side. The financial disaster squeezed bills accounts. Covid created a financial disaster for Manhattan eateries specifically given the work-from-home mandates.
Gerardo and Cosimo needed a reboot; they closed for practically a yr to replace the decor and the ambiance, reopening earlier this spring. The place has a more fashionable vibe and the food stays prime notch, however they’ve been scrambling to remind of us that they’re back in business.
The place has a more fashionable vibe and the food stays prime notch, however they’ve been scrambling to remind of us that they’re back in business. Gerardo Bruno
The phrase is now spreading, Gerardo tells me, along with his outdated prospects slowly filling his seats during lunch and dinner. It helps that the brothers have expanded the bar that now attracts a subtle happy-hour crowd.
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Gerardo, I ought to level out, is perhaps the best maitre d’ within the metropolis, so even in the event you’re not a common you’ll really feel welcome. Cosimo does the cooking, together with some of the best Italian desserts round (strive the do-it-yourself Sfogliatella). I must also level out that good food runs within the household; their different brother, Giuseppe, is the legendary chef and proprietor of Sistina and Caravaggio on the Upper East Side.
And for all of the money that walks within the door, it’s not a pretentious scene. I introduced my childhood friends there one evening – working-class guys who love great do-it-yourself Italian food. Cosimo whipped up some outdated fashion tripe or trippa — the cooked lining of a cow’s abdomen simmered in tomato sauce — that is a southern Italian delicacy.
My mother couldn’t have made it higher.
