August 27, 2025 • 35 mins
In this episode, Martha heads to a leafy corner of New York City’s West Village for cappuccino and conversation with acclaimed chef-restaurateurs Jody Williams and Rita Sodi. Together, they reflect on their devotion to the handmade, the heirloom, and the hyper-local in their celebrated restaurants, bars, and shops. Their empire shows how craftsmanship, curiosity and “10,000 daily details” can transform a street into a community. Listen in to hear the secrets behind their success.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
I am so lucky today I have come to the
right place. It is sweltering hot in New York City,
and I am sitting with the two owners chefs of
Via Karota and other restaurants and other establishments. And we're
gonna talk. We're gonna talk food, We're gonna talk style,
We're gonna talk all kinds of things. And sitting on
(00:28):
my left is a familiar face, Hannah Millman, who, by
the way, used to work with me all the time
as our founding Craft and Nature editor in New York City.
Tucked on to the most charming of West Village streets,
there is a string of cafes restaurants that so reflect
their neighborhood it seems I think they were always here,
(00:50):
But actually that's not the case. This street has been
taken over by two industrious, fabulous, interesting women. If you're
food connoisseur, you might know that Eodi is one of
the most challenging reservations to score. You know that lines
form for the exquisitely crafted negronis Martini's and cappuccinos at
(01:11):
Bar Pisollino. And this bustling community has been thoughtfully built
by two self taught chefs Rita Sodi and Jody Williams.
I came down to their joint venture via Carota. That's
where we're sitting right now, and you might hear some
noise because the restaurant is open right behind this wall.
So we talk to them about their enduring success and
(01:34):
their expansion into retail concepts like Ficina is it Oficina
or Oficinamacina thirteen ninety seven, And that's Hannah talking because
she's masterminding the contents of that gorgeous store. Welcome to
my podcast, all three of you.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Well, we're so happy to have you here. What a treat,
What an afternoon treat to have you here, and all
the four of us gathered around the table, than it.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Is really nice to be here. I've been waiting and
waiting to come down downtown, and I kind of miss
coming downtown because my children, my grandchildren and my child Alexis.
They moved uptown so the kids could go to school
closer to where they live. But I love it down here,
and you must love it because you're taking over the city.
(02:24):
I mean this part of the city. It is astonishing.
What gave you the idea to really sort of take
over the street, a whole street.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Well, I don't think we took over the whole street almost.
We just we've been working in the West Village, which
is a beautiful neighborhood, working and living in the West
Village for about twenty years. Fifteen years. Yes, we both
started our first restaurants here, cooking around the corner where
(02:52):
we met.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
So your first restaurant was Couvette, Okay, Bouvette, which I
know very well. Yes, and we did a story in
our magazine. I'm just looking at this story, big little plates.
I just fell in love with that place. It was
so extraoriny. What was the concept behind Bouvett, Well.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
I just wanted to learn to make French food and
tart tartan and figure out how I could do that,
and so came up with since I did, to do
a gastrotech where I would serve you and cook for
you behind the bar and open wine. And it all
evolved from there.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
And the funny thing about Bouvett, I learned how to
make scrambled eggs, the best scrambled eggs on my cappuccino machine,
using the steam wand the wand that you froth the
milk with at Bouvett and I still do that all
the time. It's like a surprise for my morning guests.
And I learned that from you, Jody. That was extraordinary.
(03:50):
And you're still making five hundred air puffed scrambled eggs
every day all day.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Hep it with caveat open champagne at night.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Many cappuccino machines have you used up that way?
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Well, that's a fascinating question. We will wear out our
Fiama East sixty one's all the time. So imagine're putting
like a couple hundred thousand miles on a car. You
pull it aside before it breaks down, and we'll say,
let's let's refresh it, rebuild it now.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Rita Sodi, you came to New York from from Italy?
You you are Italian born?
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Yeah, I'm a Florentina. Yeah from Florence.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Yeah, oh how beautiful. And when did you come here?
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Two thousand and eight, two thousand and seven.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
So recently you're in You're a recent import. So you
started East Sody making the best Florentine food in New
York City. I try a line around the corner of
reservation is extremely impossible to get well. If I can
I have with private number so that I should come down.
Sure please. And then and then the two of you
(05:01):
got together. You actually are married.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Yeah, so we are.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Oh so what year was that?
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Twenty and sixteen? I hope I got this right.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
And all you do is work, work, work, exactly.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
You know we don't. It's certainly work and it's hard,
but but you have the best staff, each of you
have the best staff.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Here and the most most creative atmosphere.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
The name of the restaurants that you have now and
the bars, okay, Bar Pizillino.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
That's on the corner. And then what street is this?
Speaker 3 (05:34):
It's seventh Avenue, seventh Avenue, the top of Grove Street
and seventh Avenue.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Then down the road down a little ways is this
beautiful store right.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
We just opened at the end of the year in
twenty twenty four O Fashina del Berri, which is our
fine wine, cocktail and spirit store. And that's right next
to Bar pisol right in the middle of Bar Pisolino.
So it's that corner is dedicated to the art of
treeing well. And then around the corner in front of
Via Kroota where we're sitting is O Facina thirteen ninety seven.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Is thirteen ninety seven the address or where's the thirteen
ninety seven come from?
Speaker 2 (06:12):
It is the date that the Renaissance was attributed to,
starting in Florence with the medicis where art and culture
and merchant.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Since I studied Renaissance art, so I just saw the
Caravadro exhibit in Rome. Oh wow, but he was later
he was fifteen hundred and fifteen oh eight or something.
It was needed just at the end of fifteen hundred.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
I love that art so much. So okay, So that
was when the Renaissance started with emitted cheese.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
So it's a day and time that we love, you know.
We do a lot of Italian food Isodi Viacroota, Barpisolino
and then the two stores O Facino, the Berrier liquor store.
It's been in the neighborhood since nineteen thirty four, so
it's great to continue.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
And so you bought that from the former owner.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
They wanted to retire and Sosa Calda to start. We
made the name and we took over their business and
keep it, keep it going, sort of do a restoration,
find all the history in it, and so when we're
working in the neighborhood on Grow Street, we're sort of
well design. We'll think about what it is we want
(07:25):
to do, what do we want to serve, and basically
we make places where we want to spend our time.
And Hannah's here because we have O Fashina thirteen ninety seven,
which is a store that's dedicated to all the things
that we love, you know, in terms of cooking.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
And living all Italian. No, no, no no, they're just exquisite.
Speaker 5 (07:45):
So O Fashina means workshop, right, so it's perfect for
me to work with Jodie and Rita and help them
and it's really what they love and they use so
everything from every tool in the in the kitchen to
farmers produce from Italy but also local farmers and makers
and games they play and games they play, and olive.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Oils and olive oils they use right now, the olive
oils come from your farm. Oh yeah, it is so delicious.
I have it hidden in my cupboard because other people
cook in my kitchen and I had to hide your
olive oil. I keep it just for me to drizzle
over my mozzarella or my Yeah, I don't let anybody
(08:28):
use it. And vinegars or the vinegar that oh I got,
the balsamic vinegar is so good, really delicious. So if
you need a gift and anybody listening, that is the
place to go for a very special and unusual gift.
Foodstuffs and crafts and obja that you can't find anywhere
(08:51):
else in the city. And that's what's nice about it, Honey.
You're doing a fantastic curatorial job there.
Speaker 5 (08:56):
Sort of it's just finding what they love and they
use great job.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
You're pretty good at it.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
You know everything, and I mean and of course why
do you know everything and have this rich life?
Speaker 5 (09:09):
And then this, yeah, working with Mark telling stories, so
it's sort of the same curiosity that you have.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
Martha wrote Rita and Jody ha yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
No.
Speaker 5 (09:17):
And then they also antique, so they collect everything that
you see.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
So they've created everything.
Speaker 5 (09:23):
They've like all the woodwork, everything and every one of
their establishments.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
And oh and I forgot you mentioned commerce. We had
a delicious dinner there not long ago for Tom Brown
and it was it was spectacular. It was so beautiful.
It's a very sparse and stern restaurant sort of what
do you how do you describe it, Jody, Well, for.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
A long time we Rita and I have been collecting
old recipes and just longing to create that New York
City tavern that's sort of steeped in history. And so
we work with the Shaker muse see them upstate and
found our way upstate to the Hudson Valley so we
could create this dining room, this old in this on
(10:07):
Comer Street, which is next to the Cherry Lane Theater,
which is beautiful, iconic little cul de sac. It's all
Shaker design. And then it's just food that we wouldn't
cook here in Italian restaurants like you know Club samway
to our pancakes or you know, chops and roasts and things.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Yeah, it's it's delicious and very very nice. And Rita,
you were a Calvin Klein designer.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
Yeah, we were like license for for carving clin jeans jeans, yeah,
Italy for Europe and Asia.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Yeah. So that so you did that and then you
started to cook. So are you both self taught cooks?
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Talk like I am I am, I'm.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
One of those too. And it's it's incredible where you
can go with with knowledge and curiosity and authentic the
city that you have, it's so so lovely. So the
dining experiences in these places, I mean you can hear,
it's lively, it's crowded, you have an extraordinary dining experience.
(11:13):
And long before today's craze for craft cocktails is so
these menu had lengthy in the groaning menu. Tell me
why whye the gronies.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Whine it girls, because it's a it's an Italian appetitive
and you know, no, I grow up, but I started
to drink as soon as I was able to.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
What goes into your negronie? Your your your famous the gronie.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Yeah, we have several of them.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
The classic one is you know, like a beater is
a campari in gene and and the Vermouth, or it
can be with the Jean and chinnar and Vermouth, or
it can be white and so you have a white
beater gen and a whermouth. So there is a lot
of versions, know fo we do all them.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Yeah, what about other Italian traits? There's so many other
good ones.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Well, we started the vihicrotacraft cocktail, which is probably one
of the most beautiful things we put together. That it
came out of our our journey of behind the bar.
I mean when we started Bar Pisolino, we were interested
in mixology and that creating the that moment where if
you're in Milan or Florence, you get a stand up
at the bar and have your breakfast or stop buying,
(12:24):
have a quick appartef and something, you know, with a
little bite to eat.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
So what what are other Italian cocktails?
Speaker 2 (12:32):
We do? Martini's we do. It's the cocktail culture. So
there's old fashions and there's a beautiful margarita. There are Manhattan.
We have Sparkling, we have the Sprits. We have French seventy.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Five, we have a April Sprits.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
So it's you know, it's about the culture of having
an apertivo and drinking.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
And do you like aparol?
Speaker 4 (12:55):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (12:55):
I do like approl. I believe everything has its moment.
I remember my first Negroni was in Lago Puccini uh
out in Tuscany and boom, somebody put it in front
of me and I took a step and I thought,
oh my, that's awful.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Yeah, that's how that's how I feel.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
And it diluted a little bit and then by the
end of the glass it's my favorite cocktail?
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Oh really?
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Twenty five thirty years later, and what.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
About you, Rita, what's your favorite cocktail?
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Negarni? Yes, Negroni?
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Yeah, and how do you make yours?
Speaker 3 (13:28):
My I prefer mine white Negroni. So it's a it's
a gene and a white vermuth and a white bedder.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Which gin do you use?
Speaker 4 (13:35):
No money?
Speaker 3 (13:36):
We use a tan cay in ten.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
I have a new gin for you really okay. Yeah,
it's called still Gin stealin s t I L L
dot gin. It's a new gin and I'm I'm working
with doctor Dre and with Jimmy Iovine from Beats and
Snoop Dogg. And we're promoted were They've they developed a
(13:59):
gin and I'm just promoting it. But it's a everyone
has to try one of your negronies with it was
Still Gin. They're gonna they're gonna love that, boy, I
love it.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
We're gonna get a hand And it.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Has a cute bottle. It's a black bubbly bottle. That's nice.
So I'll make sure you get some of that gin
and try it and see if you like it with
your with your negronis.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Well, we'll make sure you get some of our cocktails
to share.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Yes, snooping absolutely absolut.
Speaker 4 (14:28):
Bar Pistolino has you know became I love that.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
I love that bar.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
It's so popular. There's hundreds of people lined up.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
I mean standing at the bar just choosing all those
delicious uh apparent evos and the and the beautiful food
in the in the case. I I loved it.
Speaker 4 (14:45):
It's remember, it's so popular.
Speaker 5 (14:47):
And then they just opened another one right right next
door at the liquor store.
Speaker 4 (14:51):
So there's two.
Speaker 5 (14:52):
Yeah, And with that became the craft cocktails because that
love of drinking the Italian negronies people love. And then
they started bottle ants, so now you can get it
all ready.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Yeah, so you can have them at your house, yes,
and just pour it over over ice. Right.
Speaker 5 (15:08):
And the same thing with commerce in which is American cookery,
is there's a sasparilla drink, so it's very much you know,
what's native to North America.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
I made sasparilla with my mother and father one day
in our family home in New Jersey, and we bottled up,
oh maybe fifty bottles of like old beer bottles of sasparilla.
And you had those corks that you clamp down corks
and it got very hot in the sun room where
(15:40):
we put them, and all of a sudden they started
to explode. So we had to get such a mess
of sasparilla all over the house. And I love the
taste of sasparilla. It's so good. Where do you get
sasparilla from?
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Well, we find it. There's a couple of great sources
for spices and herbs in the city Sos.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
And so do you make your own?
Speaker 4 (16:03):
Yeah, oh, you just.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Make a say we have a sasparola soda on the middle. Oh,
now you have to try it.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Oh, I'm going to I like it with ice cream,
with vanilla ice cream. You have that a float, a
sasparilla float. Oh, I love that better than a root
beer float. I bet it is. It's so good. So
each of your restaurants have such a unique character and flavor.
How do you keep it so pristine and separate.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Well, we we're really intentional about what we want to build,
what we want to cook, and what we want to
feel like. And then we turn it over and just
try to, you know, keep it going, keep it sane.
So we actually only do a restaurant almost every three years,
which is a long.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Time, only every three years. It took me eighty years
to do one restaurant. I finally have a restaurant. Do
you know I have a restaurant. Yeah, I have one.
I'm gonna have too soon. We open one early next year,
but another one. I love having a restaurant and I
and I should have had a restaurant long ago, but
I never. I just I had so many other things
(17:13):
I was doing that I just didn't do a restaurant.
But it's so much fun.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Like you did one hundred cookbooks, Yeah, I did a
hundred cookbook. We're starting cookbook number two, well Bouvette, and
then there's Vietcaudea. Yeah, we're doing but one hundred cookbooks
and a lot we built a world.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
It's a different, different approach. But I think it's so
much fun to have the restaurants. I know how hard
the work is. I mean you have to have you
have to have the best staff to keep these places going.
And and that's one of the charming things. Everybody says.
The staff is so friendly at each of your restaurants,
and so good, I mean really good staffs. That's and
(17:49):
how do you encourage them?
Speaker 2 (17:52):
We hire people that are passionate about something. It doesn't
it doesn't always have to be passionate, a passion for
food and wine and drink, some mixology, but some light
in their life that they would be a good company.
And then it's a ten thousand details the same way
every day, again and again and again, and you know,
(18:14):
try and try and lead with I don't know, big heart.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
So you had Buvett first by yourself, yes, and you
HADDI by yourself yes. And then you met is that
when you met on the on this street?
Speaker 3 (18:27):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (18:27):
We met well. Isodi was on Christopher and I met
Rita at her restaurant. I had friends saying you should
go there, this is very good and I'm like okay,
and some other friends were saying you should meet this person.
And I ended up at Isodi one night and it
was very good. It was just like what I knew.
I'd lived in Italy and learned to cook there for
(18:50):
five years and I'm like wow. You know. So we
met and then we decided if we wanted to see
each other, we should open a restaurant together. And that's
before you got married, yes, yes, oh wow, ten years old.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
And then you were so busy that you would never
see each other unless you were married. That is so great.
That is so great. If you haven't been to New
York and and uh and haven't visited any of these restaurants,
you must come because this is a sort of a
very unique happening in New York City, So so amazing.
(19:30):
How did your design process work when you when you
use like like Pisolino, How did you get to think
of it what that should look like?
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Well, there's two things that are really important. One will
take a location and then we'll sort of begin to
peel back the layers of that location to find its
history and those beautiful New York moments, whether it's the
torozzo floor or beans in the ceiling. So and the
other thing is we'll have an idea about what we
(20:00):
want to cook there and what we wanted to feel
like when we're eating there. So, for example, Via Carota
was inspired by very heavy door knocker on the back
of Rita's kitchen door in Florence, and that home was
actually on a street called Via Coroota.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Oh, so that's where it came from.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
And we didn't know what this space would be. We
just thought we're in it. Let's it's a challenge.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
And this is a big space. How many tables in
this restaurant.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Oh, I don't know, maybe about close to one hundred people. Yeah,
So I.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Noticed the lamps, the hanging lamps are the same as
you have across the street in Opencino. Do you sell those?
Speaker 2 (20:40):
No, you collect, There's there's a lot of everything around.
Will just collect. These are from gas station. There are
green and white enamel pendants that are from gas stations.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Are they old? They're they're none of everything and then
they so.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
We try to always repurpose or find we have great
teen the commerce in we bought the floor and the
b board ceiling out of a company store that was
a train depot and old soapstone quarry and we bought that,
reclaimed it and installed it. I think it was out
of Virginia, West Virginia. So that we try to precurpose
(21:18):
fine things. We collected like a dozen of these and
so if we had too, they're gonna end up in
that corner right.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Well, they're they're very, very beautiful.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
The famous chair, that's an interesting the.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Chapel chair, Yeah, out of a church.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
Yeah, it was the original was a vicaroa in Italy. Yes, yeah,
they're way around at the table. We'll find We'll find them.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
So it is kitchen table had there was a fogar,
a fireplace in there, and she had these beautiful chapel chairs.
So when we decided that this restaurant would be named
via Carota and we would be inspired by the life
that happened there in the kitchen and in the gardens,
we had to go find one hundred chapel chairs and
so we would. We found somebody in outside of London
(22:06):
who was able to source these.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
And what kind of this cappuccino is excellent, the iced cappuccino.
What kind of coffee do you use here or is
that a secret?
Speaker 2 (22:16):
No, not a secret, love to share. This is wood
fired coffee. It's roasted outside of Florence by a company
called a Nary. They've been wood fire roasting coffee small
batches since nineteen forty five.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
It tastes a lot like the coffee I used, but
it comes from tries though ness them. It's called nessum
Antica Tristina. Yeah, and I love that. I've used that
coffee for ever.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
I used that coffee at one time ever since.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
But this is very tage you sell that here in
the store.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Yet we actually do. We use it in all our restaurants. There.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
It's I'm going to try, I'm going to take. We
have to get a couple pounds of this so that
we can try it.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Yeah, they use a ksha wood.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
I think it makes a huge difference.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
Yeah, but it makes it.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Yeah. What makes this coffee so special is that it's small,
batches unique. Just there's one individual stand over there. There's
no lasers. It's seventy kilos. They roast it, they watch it,
they smell it, they add a log to the fire,
and when it's ready, they pull it out.
Speaker 4 (23:16):
Yeah, you can see why I wanted to work with them.
Speaker 5 (23:19):
I said, yes, please, because craft, whether it's the the
way the coffee's made, something made, heirloom, it should last forever.
You treasure it after one hundred years.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
I agree.
Speaker 4 (23:30):
Talking my language, I agree, and the uh oh.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
I went to Rome recently. I asked the man who
was taking us through to to our car. He said, please,
I just would love to have a small cappuccino. And
he said not here, not here, And he took us
out near the parking lot and there was this little
window and he said here and it was the same coffee.
I mean, it's that taste and I was so happy.
(23:55):
It was the best coffee we had in Rome. And
it used to be good everywhere, but it's not is good.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Now you have to find it.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
I think we're driven by creating those moments and you
know our I think in my head, in your head, rider,
there's this library of tastes and experience that we carry
around that we want to preserve and recreate.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
So these restaurants are it's a very tough business. I
know how tough it is.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
I've gone.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
I have so many chefs who are friends and live
through the angst and the grief and the joy of
owning restaurants and running restaurants. Why are they so popular?
What do you think besides the delicious?
Speaker 2 (24:48):
I don't know if they're popular. I know they're busy.
I know you put your head down and you do
the work every day and you focus on you get
up early. Good cooking starts early and goes late, and
you just pay attention to the details.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
What are the challenges? Is it supply of ingredients? Is
it help in the kitchen?
Speaker 2 (25:14):
Oh? I think everything when everything can be a challenge
you just be smart about your whether it's sourcing. It's
a tomato started late this summer, really.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
You might have not ripened yet. Yeah, I'm picking thousands
of peaches which are perfectly ripe, and I picked two
ripe tomatoes. And I have about three hundred plants. I mean,
it's not like I don't have a lot of plants,
and they are the plants are like six feet tall
and they're laden with tomatoes. Are not ripening. What the
heck is going on?
Speaker 2 (25:47):
So that's a big challenge, you know. I mean we're
starting late, so you put something else. Maybe we'll do
something with green tomatoes and boatargo or both.
Speaker 4 (25:57):
Karga.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
That's my favorite ingredient of all time. Why why do
you think I love? Why do we love bartoarga so much?
Speaker 2 (26:05):
It it's that unami kind of salty.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
It's a salty pressed row of the mullet fish made
in Italy. And I was in Sarginia and I was
taken to somebody's house for dinner and he served just
just a pasta like a bukachini with botarga and breadcrumbs,
and it was so delicious. I had never chased anything
(26:30):
like it, so I keep Botarga in my freezer all
the time, all the time.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
That's a good secret. And I love a pasta dish
made with three ingredients.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
That's my favorite favorite kind of pasta.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
I think if you go across the street to the
O Fashina thirteen ninety seven star, there's an old fashioned
refrigerator Westinghouse, like nineteen thirty. I saw it or and
you open that door and it clicks and it's as
heavy as a car door and in it each behind
each door are delicacies and but Target is there and
the best line cut anchovies.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
Oh I love anchovies. I love sardines. Oh great, I
love sardines. There's a little restaurant in Maine. I go
to Maine for my vacations and there's a little restaurant.
You take your boat and you go to Southwest Harbor.
Have you been to this one? That's everything is tined fishy.
Did you go with me? Yeah? And so it's just
beautiful sour dough bread sliced thick and toasted on the fire,
(27:29):
and then just you just dump a can of whatever
you you know, mackerel or mussels or clams, all right
out of the can and you eat it on that
buttered bread, buttered rose. It's delicious and people go there
all the time just to eat the sandwich.
Speaker 5 (27:46):
So if you go into Oa Facina, which is fifty
Grove Street right across from Via Corona.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Good girl, you're giving the right address.
Speaker 5 (27:54):
It's amazing because every place that they design and they
build is just they've collected everything. And she mentions the
westing House nineteen twenty nine refrigerator, which you have a
general electric one from nineteen twenty nine was.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
A wool this long of refrigerators in my house in Maine.
Speaker 5 (28:11):
But they restored that refrigerator and when they showed brought
me over to this little space they were starting to
sell their panatoni and their book and their olive oil.
Speaker 4 (28:20):
I just couldn't believe it. It was like it was amazing.
Speaker 5 (28:23):
And one other thing is like is another thing is
like little ram Oyster, which is two women who live
in the.
Speaker 4 (28:30):
South Hole and have a farm. They order their oysters
year round.
Speaker 5 (28:34):
So when you talk to these farmers or overlook farm Pierre,
every week they order thirty dozen eggs from this farmer.
They use it at Buvett Commerce in Via Croda and
then they always order from Pierre. So when you talk
to Pierre, a farmer, one of the.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
Many reliable source.
Speaker 5 (28:50):
Yeah, and from little ram Oyster, you realize that consistent
ordering from a restaurant all year round is so important
on you know, to support a farmer.
Speaker 4 (28:59):
And I really really admired.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
No, I admired that too. And now you've expanded internationally,
which is how do you do that? Who goes?
Speaker 4 (29:08):
Who goes?
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Who goes to Korea?
Speaker 2 (29:11):
Joggy? I love to travel. And how Bouvett a long
time ago Bouvette, you know, opening a space in Paris
and grew opening in London.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
At the end of the year. I was just in
Paris in.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
South pegoal at Ruelremonier. It's a yeah, it's a long
time ago. It was an adventure. It turns a restaurant
job into an adventure. And Tokyo is beautiful. I go
to Tokyo every year and it's just a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
Tokyo is one of my favorite cities. I loved. I
love to go there. I loved I loved Japan.
Speaker 4 (29:47):
Yeah, when did you open in Japan?
Speaker 2 (29:50):
Oh, two thousand and eighteen, eighteen, twenty and eighteen, So
I wonderful it's just it's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
Are you in the Ginzo?
Speaker 2 (29:58):
You're right on the Ginza and uh a Neucci, right
in front of beaup right in front of the park
and the Imperial Palace. But we're opening in Neil's Yard
at end of the year, talk lovely and our neighbors.
I mean, just a fantastic location. But it's about an adventure.
It's not so much like expansion business. It's like, this
is going to be fun. Let's go to it and
(30:21):
let's have lunches, shade George when we're embarrassed, let's go
shopping at you know, of course, so Shawn's and Neil's
Yard's dairy. So it's it's just a way. It's a
just a way to have some fun.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
It is so great. So how do you retain the
personal touch and all these restaurants, I mean this this
is obviously very personal, the look, the feel, the food.
How do you maintain that?
Speaker 2 (30:47):
Well, you know, it is ten thousand details that are
the same every day and day you walk in and
you you you talk to people. Everybody needs to understand
what this is and why this is. And a few
depths away from us in the dining room. When you
hear all the din there's a old hutch and in
that old hutch is a cutting board that was in
Rita's mother's kitchen and there's a metsaluna there and this
(31:11):
cutting board was worn deep and stained green with parsley,
I mean like an inch deep from work. So when
people understand the chair or the history or why you
walk this way and not this way and what's important,
it's sort of highly functional environment, so it really helps.
There's not a lot of decoration or excess. These are
(31:34):
the glasses, Those are the plates to your left, they'll
be on the table. There's the tablecloths in front of us.
So it's all the design sort of supports the work.
And I think when chefs create kitchens, you friend so
it's easier to maintain.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
Yeah, that's so great.
Speaker 5 (31:51):
If you walk over to East soday that they've just
moved at Rita's designed, there's staircase that they put in
that's just to bring the dirty dishes down and they
bring the new dishes up on another stair It's just
so beautiful.
Speaker 4 (32:06):
It's so beautifully designed.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
So, Rita, how do you make a simple tomato sauce.
Speaker 3 (32:14):
Just with tomato, little big garlic and the basil.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
That's it. That's it. Olive oil, Yes, first olive oil,
then garlic. Or when do you put the garlic in?
Speaker 3 (32:25):
The garlic goes inside it when the tomato is already in.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
So do you peel the tomatoes or do you keep them?
Speaker 3 (32:31):
Do you? I passed the tomato?
Speaker 2 (32:33):
You do?
Speaker 1 (32:34):
Yeahstamato first before you cook?
Speaker 3 (32:36):
Did I cook?
Speaker 4 (32:37):
Sorry?
Speaker 2 (32:37):
She passes the sauce after HI cook?
Speaker 1 (32:39):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (32:39):
After Okay.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
In a food in a food mill, I just want
to know. I just want to know. And then you
reduce it, you keep it, you make it thicker and thicker, very.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
Very slow cover. Yeah, fresh tomatoes picked out of the
garden and the tomatoes that were growing. We are from
the seeds that Rita it brought great.
Speaker 3 (33:01):
Yeah, I buy.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
I buy all my seeds overseas. For all the different
tomatoes I bring them. I bring them home all the time.
The first thing I do is go to the seed
store wherever, Paris, roam anyplace looking for the right seeds.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
I'm taking notes.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
Yeah, I love I love all those things.
Speaker 4 (33:20):
I have a beautiful farm up in Hudson.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Yeah, she just said that. She just came back from there,
and it's so nice to be able to get away
for a few days.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
One of those days, one of these days we'll well,
we'll do something up in Hudson.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
But that would be great. They have some good food
up there now. Very it's very nice, very very nice.
So what what restaurant concept is in your mind for
the next restaurant? Do you have another one coming?
Speaker 3 (33:46):
Do we we have something coming here?
Speaker 2 (33:48):
We do so up in Hudson, like I mentioned, one
of these days we'll probably do our Italian embrace of
you know, wood fired of Oh what's growing up there?
Speaker 4 (33:58):
How great?
Speaker 2 (33:59):
Maybe we just make lunch.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
I don't know, you know, but do you make pizza?
Speaker 2 (34:04):
We make scachata, We make pizza.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
This has been such an interesting conversation. Is there anything
else you'd like to say, Hannah, Just come visit.
Speaker 4 (34:13):
Come visit.
Speaker 5 (34:14):
So tell us real community in the West Village because
of Jodi and Rita and so many people come in
every day to get butter and eggs at the store,
at the shop, and it's just it's a real neighborhood.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
So tell our listeners how they can follow you for
your spirits, the other goods that you sell and your
latest restaurant news. Do you have an Instagram?
Speaker 2 (34:38):
Yeah? You think we do?
Speaker 1 (34:39):
And which which one should we look at?
Speaker 2 (34:41):
Oh? You know, I think all the restaurants have Via
Kroota has an Instagram and Bar Pisolino Sodi. Yesodi's Instagram
is actually under Rita Sodi. What else, Commerson, the commerce
Emerson has his own. We're missing something, Oh, Fashina.
Speaker 4 (34:59):
And Forshena thirteen ninety seven.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Okay, So you know it's best just to take a
beautiful passage down in the West Village and.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
Better to come in person. So Grove Street in the
West Village in New York City, take a couple of
days and just and try each one of these as
it really is an experience. And I congratulate you so
much on everything that you've accomplished and these beautiful eateries
that you have created for all of us.
Speaker 3 (35:28):
So thank you so much, thank you.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
Thank you Hannah for reintroducing Micha Groves Street Welcome because
it's so great.
Speaker 4 (35:37):
It is so great.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
Thank you, thank you, thank you much.
I am so lucky today I have come to the
right place. It is sweltering hot in New York City,
and I am sitting with the two owners chefs of
Via Karota and other restaurants and other establishments. And we're
gonna talk. We're gonna talk food, We're gonna talk style,
We're gonna talk all kinds of things. And sitting on
(00:28):
my left is a familiar face, Hannah Millman, who, by
the way, used to work with me all the time
as our founding Craft and Nature editor in New York City.
Tucked on to the most charming of West Village streets,
there is a string of cafes restaurants that so reflect
their neighborhood it seems I think they were always here,
(00:50):
But actually that's not the case. This street has been
taken over by two industrious, fabulous, interesting women. If you're
food connoisseur, you might know that Eodi is one of
the most challenging reservations to score. You know that lines
form for the exquisitely crafted negronis Martini's and cappuccinos at
(01:11):
Bar Pisollino. And this bustling community has been thoughtfully built
by two self taught chefs Rita Sodi and Jody Williams.
I came down to their joint venture via Carota. That's
where we're sitting right now, and you might hear some
noise because the restaurant is open right behind this wall.
So we talk to them about their enduring success and
(01:34):
their expansion into retail concepts like Ficina is it Oficina
or Oficinamacina thirteen ninety seven, And that's Hannah talking because
she's masterminding the contents of that gorgeous store. Welcome to
my podcast, all three of you.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Well, we're so happy to have you here. What a treat,
What an afternoon treat to have you here, and all
the four of us gathered around the table, than it.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Is really nice to be here. I've been waiting and
waiting to come down downtown, and I kind of miss
coming downtown because my children, my grandchildren and my child Alexis.
They moved uptown so the kids could go to school
closer to where they live. But I love it down here,
and you must love it because you're taking over the city.
(02:24):
I mean this part of the city. It is astonishing.
What gave you the idea to really sort of take
over the street, a whole street.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Well, I don't think we took over the whole street almost.
We just we've been working in the West Village, which
is a beautiful neighborhood, working and living in the West
Village for about twenty years. Fifteen years. Yes, we both
started our first restaurants here, cooking around the corner where
(02:52):
we met.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
So your first restaurant was Couvette, Okay, Bouvette, which I
know very well. Yes, and we did a story in
our magazine. I'm just looking at this story, big little plates.
I just fell in love with that place. It was
so extraoriny. What was the concept behind Bouvett, Well.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
I just wanted to learn to make French food and
tart tartan and figure out how I could do that,
and so came up with since I did, to do
a gastrotech where I would serve you and cook for
you behind the bar and open wine. And it all
evolved from there.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
And the funny thing about Bouvett, I learned how to
make scrambled eggs, the best scrambled eggs on my cappuccino machine,
using the steam wand the wand that you froth the
milk with at Bouvett and I still do that all
the time. It's like a surprise for my morning guests.
And I learned that from you, Jody. That was extraordinary.
(03:50):
And you're still making five hundred air puffed scrambled eggs
every day all day.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Hep it with caveat open champagne at night.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Many cappuccino machines have you used up that way?
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Well, that's a fascinating question. We will wear out our
Fiama East sixty one's all the time. So imagine're putting
like a couple hundred thousand miles on a car. You
pull it aside before it breaks down, and we'll say,
let's let's refresh it, rebuild it now.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Rita Sodi, you came to New York from from Italy?
You you are Italian born?
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Yeah, I'm a Florentina. Yeah from Florence.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Yeah, oh how beautiful. And when did you come here?
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Two thousand and eight, two thousand and seven.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
So recently you're in You're a recent import. So you
started East Sody making the best Florentine food in New
York City. I try a line around the corner of
reservation is extremely impossible to get well. If I can
I have with private number so that I should come down.
Sure please. And then and then the two of you
(05:01):
got together. You actually are married.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Yeah, so we are.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Oh so what year was that?
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Twenty and sixteen? I hope I got this right.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
And all you do is work, work, work, exactly.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
You know we don't. It's certainly work and it's hard,
but but you have the best staff, each of you
have the best staff.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Here and the most most creative atmosphere.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
The name of the restaurants that you have now and
the bars, okay, Bar Pizillino.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
That's on the corner. And then what street is this?
Speaker 3 (05:34):
It's seventh Avenue, seventh Avenue, the top of Grove Street
and seventh Avenue.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Then down the road down a little ways is this
beautiful store right.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
We just opened at the end of the year in
twenty twenty four O Fashina del Berri, which is our
fine wine, cocktail and spirit store. And that's right next
to Bar pisol right in the middle of Bar Pisolino.
So it's that corner is dedicated to the art of
treeing well. And then around the corner in front of
Via Kroota where we're sitting is O Facina thirteen ninety seven.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Is thirteen ninety seven the address or where's the thirteen
ninety seven come from?
Speaker 2 (06:12):
It is the date that the Renaissance was attributed to,
starting in Florence with the medicis where art and culture
and merchant.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Since I studied Renaissance art, so I just saw the
Caravadro exhibit in Rome. Oh wow, but he was later
he was fifteen hundred and fifteen oh eight or something.
It was needed just at the end of fifteen hundred.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
I love that art so much. So okay, So that
was when the Renaissance started with emitted cheese.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
So it's a day and time that we love, you know.
We do a lot of Italian food Isodi Viacroota, Barpisolino
and then the two stores O Facino, the Berrier liquor store.
It's been in the neighborhood since nineteen thirty four, so
it's great to continue.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
And so you bought that from the former owner.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
They wanted to retire and Sosa Calda to start. We
made the name and we took over their business and
keep it, keep it going, sort of do a restoration,
find all the history in it, and so when we're
working in the neighborhood on Grow Street, we're sort of
well design. We'll think about what it is we want
(07:25):
to do, what do we want to serve, and basically
we make places where we want to spend our time.
And Hannah's here because we have O Fashina thirteen ninety seven,
which is a store that's dedicated to all the things
that we love, you know, in terms of cooking.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
And living all Italian. No, no, no no, they're just exquisite.
Speaker 5 (07:45):
So O Fashina means workshop, right, so it's perfect for
me to work with Jodie and Rita and help them
and it's really what they love and they use so
everything from every tool in the in the kitchen to
farmers produce from Italy but also local farmers and makers
and games they play and games they play, and olive.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Oils and olive oils they use right now, the olive
oils come from your farm. Oh yeah, it is so delicious.
I have it hidden in my cupboard because other people
cook in my kitchen and I had to hide your
olive oil. I keep it just for me to drizzle
over my mozzarella or my Yeah, I don't let anybody
(08:28):
use it. And vinegars or the vinegar that oh I got,
the balsamic vinegar is so good, really delicious. So if
you need a gift and anybody listening, that is the
place to go for a very special and unusual gift.
Foodstuffs and crafts and obja that you can't find anywhere
(08:51):
else in the city. And that's what's nice about it, Honey.
You're doing a fantastic curatorial job there.
Speaker 5 (08:56):
Sort of it's just finding what they love and they
use great job.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
You're pretty good at it.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
You know everything, and I mean and of course why
do you know everything and have this rich life?
Speaker 5 (09:09):
And then this, yeah, working with Mark telling stories, so
it's sort of the same curiosity that you have.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
Martha wrote Rita and Jody ha yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
No.
Speaker 5 (09:17):
And then they also antique, so they collect everything that
you see.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
So they've created everything.
Speaker 5 (09:23):
They've like all the woodwork, everything and every one of
their establishments.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
And oh and I forgot you mentioned commerce. We had
a delicious dinner there not long ago for Tom Brown
and it was it was spectacular. It was so beautiful.
It's a very sparse and stern restaurant sort of what
do you how do you describe it, Jody, Well, for.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
A long time we Rita and I have been collecting
old recipes and just longing to create that New York
City tavern that's sort of steeped in history. And so
we work with the Shaker muse see them upstate and
found our way upstate to the Hudson Valley so we
could create this dining room, this old in this on
(10:07):
Comer Street, which is next to the Cherry Lane Theater,
which is beautiful, iconic little cul de sac. It's all
Shaker design. And then it's just food that we wouldn't
cook here in Italian restaurants like you know Club samway
to our pancakes or you know, chops and roasts and things.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Yeah, it's it's delicious and very very nice. And Rita,
you were a Calvin Klein designer.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
Yeah, we were like license for for carving clin jeans jeans, yeah,
Italy for Europe and Asia.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Yeah. So that so you did that and then you
started to cook. So are you both self taught cooks?
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Talk like I am I am, I'm.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
One of those too. And it's it's incredible where you
can go with with knowledge and curiosity and authentic the
city that you have, it's so so lovely. So the
dining experiences in these places, I mean you can hear,
it's lively, it's crowded, you have an extraordinary dining experience.
(11:13):
And long before today's craze for craft cocktails is so
these menu had lengthy in the groaning menu. Tell me
why whye the gronies.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Whine it girls, because it's a it's an Italian appetitive
and you know, no, I grow up, but I started
to drink as soon as I was able to.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
What goes into your negronie? Your your your famous the gronie.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Yeah, we have several of them.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
The classic one is you know, like a beater is
a campari in gene and and the Vermouth, or it
can be with the Jean and chinnar and Vermouth, or
it can be white and so you have a white
beater gen and a whermouth. So there is a lot
of versions, know fo we do all them.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Yeah, what about other Italian traits? There's so many other
good ones.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Well, we started the vihicrotacraft cocktail, which is probably one
of the most beautiful things we put together. That it
came out of our our journey of behind the bar.
I mean when we started Bar Pisolino, we were interested
in mixology and that creating the that moment where if
you're in Milan or Florence, you get a stand up
at the bar and have your breakfast or stop buying,
(12:24):
have a quick appartef and something, you know, with a
little bite to eat.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
So what what are other Italian cocktails?
Speaker 2 (12:32):
We do? Martini's we do. It's the cocktail culture. So
there's old fashions and there's a beautiful margarita. There are Manhattan.
We have Sparkling, we have the Sprits. We have French seventy.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Five, we have a April Sprits.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
So it's you know, it's about the culture of having
an apertivo and drinking.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
And do you like aparol?
Speaker 4 (12:55):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (12:55):
I do like approl. I believe everything has its moment.
I remember my first Negroni was in Lago Puccini uh
out in Tuscany and boom, somebody put it in front
of me and I took a step and I thought,
oh my, that's awful.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Yeah, that's how that's how I feel.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
And it diluted a little bit and then by the
end of the glass it's my favorite cocktail?
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Oh really?
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Twenty five thirty years later, and what.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
About you, Rita, what's your favorite cocktail?
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Negarni? Yes, Negroni?
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Yeah, and how do you make yours?
Speaker 3 (13:28):
My I prefer mine white Negroni. So it's a it's
a gene and a white vermuth and a white bedder.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Which gin do you use?
Speaker 4 (13:35):
No money?
Speaker 3 (13:36):
We use a tan cay in ten.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
I have a new gin for you really okay. Yeah,
it's called still Gin stealin s t I L L
dot gin. It's a new gin and I'm I'm working
with doctor Dre and with Jimmy Iovine from Beats and
Snoop Dogg. And we're promoted were They've they developed a
(13:59):
gin and I'm just promoting it. But it's a everyone
has to try one of your negronies with it was
Still Gin. They're gonna they're gonna love that, boy, I
love it.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
We're gonna get a hand And it.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Has a cute bottle. It's a black bubbly bottle. That's nice.
So I'll make sure you get some of that gin
and try it and see if you like it with
your with your negronis.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Well, we'll make sure you get some of our cocktails
to share.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Yes, snooping absolutely absolut.
Speaker 4 (14:28):
Bar Pistolino has you know became I love that.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
I love that bar.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
It's so popular. There's hundreds of people lined up.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
I mean standing at the bar just choosing all those
delicious uh apparent evos and the and the beautiful food
in the in the case. I I loved it.
Speaker 4 (14:45):
It's remember, it's so popular.
Speaker 5 (14:47):
And then they just opened another one right right next
door at the liquor store.
Speaker 4 (14:51):
So there's two.
Speaker 5 (14:52):
Yeah, And with that became the craft cocktails because that
love of drinking the Italian negronies people love. And then
they started bottle ants, so now you can get it
all ready.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Yeah, so you can have them at your house, yes,
and just pour it over over ice. Right.
Speaker 5 (15:08):
And the same thing with commerce in which is American cookery,
is there's a sasparilla drink, so it's very much you know,
what's native to North America.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
I made sasparilla with my mother and father one day
in our family home in New Jersey, and we bottled up,
oh maybe fifty bottles of like old beer bottles of sasparilla.
And you had those corks that you clamp down corks
and it got very hot in the sun room where
(15:40):
we put them, and all of a sudden they started
to explode. So we had to get such a mess
of sasparilla all over the house. And I love the
taste of sasparilla. It's so good. Where do you get
sasparilla from?
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Well, we find it. There's a couple of great sources
for spices and herbs in the city Sos.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
And so do you make your own?
Speaker 4 (16:03):
Yeah, oh, you just.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Make a say we have a sasparola soda on the middle. Oh,
now you have to try it.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Oh, I'm going to I like it with ice cream,
with vanilla ice cream. You have that a float, a
sasparilla float. Oh, I love that better than a root
beer float. I bet it is. It's so good. So
each of your restaurants have such a unique character and flavor.
How do you keep it so pristine and separate.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Well, we we're really intentional about what we want to build,
what we want to cook, and what we want to
feel like. And then we turn it over and just
try to, you know, keep it going, keep it sane.
So we actually only do a restaurant almost every three years,
which is a long.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Time, only every three years. It took me eighty years
to do one restaurant. I finally have a restaurant. Do
you know I have a restaurant. Yeah, I have one.
I'm gonna have too soon. We open one early next year,
but another one. I love having a restaurant and I
and I should have had a restaurant long ago, but
I never. I just I had so many other things
(17:13):
I was doing that I just didn't do a restaurant.
But it's so much fun.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Like you did one hundred cookbooks, Yeah, I did a
hundred cookbook. We're starting cookbook number two, well Bouvette, and
then there's Vietcaudea. Yeah, we're doing but one hundred cookbooks
and a lot we built a world.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
It's a different, different approach. But I think it's so
much fun to have the restaurants. I know how hard
the work is. I mean you have to have you
have to have the best staff to keep these places going.
And and that's one of the charming things. Everybody says.
The staff is so friendly at each of your restaurants,
and so good, I mean really good staffs. That's and
(17:49):
how do you encourage them?
Speaker 2 (17:52):
We hire people that are passionate about something. It doesn't
it doesn't always have to be passionate, a passion for
food and wine and drink, some mixology, but some light
in their life that they would be a good company.
And then it's a ten thousand details the same way
every day, again and again and again, and you know,
(18:14):
try and try and lead with I don't know, big heart.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
So you had Buvett first by yourself, yes, and you
HADDI by yourself yes. And then you met is that
when you met on the on this street?
Speaker 3 (18:27):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (18:27):
We met well. Isodi was on Christopher and I met
Rita at her restaurant. I had friends saying you should
go there, this is very good and I'm like okay,
and some other friends were saying you should meet this person.
And I ended up at Isodi one night and it
was very good. It was just like what I knew.
I'd lived in Italy and learned to cook there for
(18:50):
five years and I'm like wow. You know. So we
met and then we decided if we wanted to see
each other, we should open a restaurant together. And that's
before you got married, yes, yes, oh wow, ten years old.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
And then you were so busy that you would never
see each other unless you were married. That is so great.
That is so great. If you haven't been to New
York and and uh and haven't visited any of these restaurants,
you must come because this is a sort of a
very unique happening in New York City, So so amazing.
(19:30):
How did your design process work when you when you
use like like Pisolino, How did you get to think
of it what that should look like?
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Well, there's two things that are really important. One will
take a location and then we'll sort of begin to
peel back the layers of that location to find its
history and those beautiful New York moments, whether it's the
torozzo floor or beans in the ceiling. So and the
other thing is we'll have an idea about what we
(20:00):
want to cook there and what we wanted to feel
like when we're eating there. So, for example, Via Carota
was inspired by very heavy door knocker on the back
of Rita's kitchen door in Florence, and that home was
actually on a street called Via Coroota.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Oh, so that's where it came from.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
And we didn't know what this space would be. We
just thought we're in it. Let's it's a challenge.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
And this is a big space. How many tables in
this restaurant.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Oh, I don't know, maybe about close to one hundred people. Yeah,
So I.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Noticed the lamps, the hanging lamps are the same as
you have across the street in Opencino. Do you sell those?
Speaker 2 (20:40):
No, you collect, There's there's a lot of everything around.
Will just collect. These are from gas station. There are
green and white enamel pendants that are from gas stations.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Are they old? They're they're none of everything and then
they so.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
We try to always repurpose or find we have great
teen the commerce in we bought the floor and the
b board ceiling out of a company store that was
a train depot and old soapstone quarry and we bought that,
reclaimed it and installed it. I think it was out
of Virginia, West Virginia. So that we try to precurpose
(21:18):
fine things. We collected like a dozen of these and
so if we had too, they're gonna end up in
that corner right.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Well, they're they're very, very beautiful.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
The famous chair, that's an interesting the.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Chapel chair, Yeah, out of a church.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
Yeah, it was the original was a vicaroa in Italy. Yes, yeah,
they're way around at the table. We'll find We'll find them.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
So it is kitchen table had there was a fogar,
a fireplace in there, and she had these beautiful chapel chairs.
So when we decided that this restaurant would be named
via Carota and we would be inspired by the life
that happened there in the kitchen and in the gardens,
we had to go find one hundred chapel chairs and
so we would. We found somebody in outside of London
(22:06):
who was able to source these.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
And what kind of this cappuccino is excellent, the iced cappuccino.
What kind of coffee do you use here or is
that a secret?
Speaker 2 (22:16):
No, not a secret, love to share. This is wood
fired coffee. It's roasted outside of Florence by a company
called a Nary. They've been wood fire roasting coffee small
batches since nineteen forty five.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
It tastes a lot like the coffee I used, but
it comes from tries though ness them. It's called nessum
Antica Tristina. Yeah, and I love that. I've used that
coffee for ever.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
I used that coffee at one time ever since.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
But this is very tage you sell that here in
the store.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Yet we actually do. We use it in all our restaurants. There.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
It's I'm going to try, I'm going to take. We
have to get a couple pounds of this so that
we can try it.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Yeah, they use a ksha wood.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
I think it makes a huge difference.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
Yeah, but it makes it.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Yeah. What makes this coffee so special is that it's small,
batches unique. Just there's one individual stand over there. There's
no lasers. It's seventy kilos. They roast it, they watch it,
they smell it, they add a log to the fire,
and when it's ready, they pull it out.
Speaker 4 (23:16):
Yeah, you can see why I wanted to work with them.
Speaker 5 (23:19):
I said, yes, please, because craft, whether it's the the
way the coffee's made, something made, heirloom, it should last forever.
You treasure it after one hundred years.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
I agree.
Speaker 4 (23:30):
Talking my language, I agree, and the uh oh.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
I went to Rome recently. I asked the man who
was taking us through to to our car. He said, please,
I just would love to have a small cappuccino. And
he said not here, not here, And he took us
out near the parking lot and there was this little
window and he said here and it was the same coffee.
I mean, it's that taste and I was so happy.
(23:55):
It was the best coffee we had in Rome. And
it used to be good everywhere, but it's not is good.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Now you have to find it.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
I think we're driven by creating those moments and you
know our I think in my head, in your head, rider,
there's this library of tastes and experience that we carry
around that we want to preserve and recreate.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
So these restaurants are it's a very tough business. I
know how tough it is.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
I've gone.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
I have so many chefs who are friends and live
through the angst and the grief and the joy of
owning restaurants and running restaurants. Why are they so popular?
What do you think besides the delicious?
Speaker 2 (24:48):
I don't know if they're popular. I know they're busy.
I know you put your head down and you do
the work every day and you focus on you get
up early. Good cooking starts early and goes late, and
you just pay attention to the details.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
What are the challenges? Is it supply of ingredients? Is
it help in the kitchen?
Speaker 2 (25:14):
Oh? I think everything when everything can be a challenge
you just be smart about your whether it's sourcing. It's
a tomato started late this summer, really.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
You might have not ripened yet. Yeah, I'm picking thousands
of peaches which are perfectly ripe, and I picked two
ripe tomatoes. And I have about three hundred plants. I mean,
it's not like I don't have a lot of plants,
and they are the plants are like six feet tall
and they're laden with tomatoes. Are not ripening. What the
heck is going on?
Speaker 2 (25:47):
So that's a big challenge, you know. I mean we're
starting late, so you put something else. Maybe we'll do
something with green tomatoes and boatargo or both.
Speaker 4 (25:57):
Karga.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
That's my favorite ingredient of all time. Why why do
you think I love? Why do we love bartoarga so much?
Speaker 2 (26:05):
It it's that unami kind of salty.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
It's a salty pressed row of the mullet fish made
in Italy. And I was in Sarginia and I was
taken to somebody's house for dinner and he served just
just a pasta like a bukachini with botarga and breadcrumbs,
and it was so delicious. I had never chased anything
(26:30):
like it, so I keep Botarga in my freezer all
the time, all the time.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
That's a good secret. And I love a pasta dish
made with three ingredients.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
That's my favorite favorite kind of pasta.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
I think if you go across the street to the
O Fashina thirteen ninety seven star, there's an old fashioned
refrigerator Westinghouse, like nineteen thirty. I saw it or and
you open that door and it clicks and it's as
heavy as a car door and in it each behind
each door are delicacies and but Target is there and
the best line cut anchovies.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
Oh I love anchovies. I love sardines. Oh great, I
love sardines. There's a little restaurant in Maine. I go
to Maine for my vacations and there's a little restaurant.
You take your boat and you go to Southwest Harbor.
Have you been to this one? That's everything is tined fishy.
Did you go with me? Yeah? And so it's just
beautiful sour dough bread sliced thick and toasted on the fire,
(27:29):
and then just you just dump a can of whatever
you you know, mackerel or mussels or clams, all right
out of the can and you eat it on that
buttered bread, buttered rose. It's delicious and people go there
all the time just to eat the sandwich.
Speaker 5 (27:46):
So if you go into Oa Facina, which is fifty
Grove Street right across from Via Corona.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Good girl, you're giving the right address.
Speaker 5 (27:54):
It's amazing because every place that they design and they
build is just they've collected everything. And she mentions the
westing House nineteen twenty nine refrigerator, which you have a
general electric one from nineteen twenty nine was.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
A wool this long of refrigerators in my house in Maine.
Speaker 5 (28:11):
But they restored that refrigerator and when they showed brought
me over to this little space they were starting to
sell their panatoni and their book and their olive oil.
Speaker 4 (28:20):
I just couldn't believe it. It was like it was amazing.
Speaker 5 (28:23):
And one other thing is like is another thing is
like little ram Oyster, which is two women who live
in the.
Speaker 4 (28:30):
South Hole and have a farm. They order their oysters
year round.
Speaker 5 (28:34):
So when you talk to these farmers or overlook farm Pierre,
every week they order thirty dozen eggs from this farmer.
They use it at Buvett Commerce in Via Croda and
then they always order from Pierre. So when you talk
to Pierre, a farmer, one of the.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
Many reliable source.
Speaker 5 (28:50):
Yeah, and from little ram Oyster, you realize that consistent
ordering from a restaurant all year round is so important
on you know, to support a farmer.
Speaker 4 (28:59):
And I really really admired.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
No, I admired that too. And now you've expanded internationally,
which is how do you do that? Who goes?
Speaker 4 (29:08):
Who goes?
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Who goes to Korea?
Speaker 2 (29:11):
Joggy? I love to travel. And how Bouvett a long
time ago Bouvette, you know, opening a space in Paris
and grew opening in London.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
At the end of the year. I was just in
Paris in.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
South pegoal at Ruelremonier. It's a yeah, it's a long
time ago. It was an adventure. It turns a restaurant
job into an adventure. And Tokyo is beautiful. I go
to Tokyo every year and it's just a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
Tokyo is one of my favorite cities. I loved. I
love to go there. I loved I loved Japan.
Speaker 4 (29:47):
Yeah, when did you open in Japan?
Speaker 2 (29:50):
Oh, two thousand and eighteen, eighteen, twenty and eighteen, So
I wonderful it's just it's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
Are you in the Ginzo?
Speaker 2 (29:58):
You're right on the Ginza and uh a Neucci, right
in front of beaup right in front of the park
and the Imperial Palace. But we're opening in Neil's Yard
at end of the year, talk lovely and our neighbors.
I mean, just a fantastic location. But it's about an adventure.
It's not so much like expansion business. It's like, this
is going to be fun. Let's go to it and
(30:21):
let's have lunches, shade George when we're embarrassed, let's go
shopping at you know, of course, so Shawn's and Neil's
Yard's dairy. So it's it's just a way. It's a
just a way to have some fun.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
It is so great. So how do you retain the
personal touch and all these restaurants, I mean this this
is obviously very personal, the look, the feel, the food.
How do you maintain that?
Speaker 2 (30:47):
Well, you know, it is ten thousand details that are
the same every day and day you walk in and
you you you talk to people. Everybody needs to understand
what this is and why this is. And a few
depths away from us in the dining room. When you
hear all the din there's a old hutch and in
that old hutch is a cutting board that was in
Rita's mother's kitchen and there's a metsaluna there and this
(31:11):
cutting board was worn deep and stained green with parsley,
I mean like an inch deep from work. So when
people understand the chair or the history or why you
walk this way and not this way and what's important,
it's sort of highly functional environment, so it really helps.
There's not a lot of decoration or excess. These are
(31:34):
the glasses, Those are the plates to your left, they'll
be on the table. There's the tablecloths in front of us.
So it's all the design sort of supports the work.
And I think when chefs create kitchens, you friend so
it's easier to maintain.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
Yeah, that's so great.
Speaker 5 (31:51):
If you walk over to East soday that they've just
moved at Rita's designed, there's staircase that they put in
that's just to bring the dirty dishes down and they
bring the new dishes up on another stair It's just
so beautiful.
Speaker 4 (32:06):
It's so beautifully designed.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
So, Rita, how do you make a simple tomato sauce.
Speaker 3 (32:14):
Just with tomato, little big garlic and the basil.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
That's it. That's it. Olive oil, Yes, first olive oil,
then garlic. Or when do you put the garlic in?
Speaker 3 (32:25):
The garlic goes inside it when the tomato is already in.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
So do you peel the tomatoes or do you keep them?
Speaker 3 (32:31):
Do you? I passed the tomato?
Speaker 2 (32:33):
You do?
Speaker 1 (32:34):
Yeahstamato first before you cook?
Speaker 3 (32:36):
Did I cook?
Speaker 4 (32:37):
Sorry?
Speaker 2 (32:37):
She passes the sauce after HI cook?
Speaker 1 (32:39):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (32:39):
After Okay.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
In a food in a food mill, I just want
to know. I just want to know. And then you
reduce it, you keep it, you make it thicker and thicker, very.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
Very slow cover. Yeah, fresh tomatoes picked out of the
garden and the tomatoes that were growing. We are from
the seeds that Rita it brought great.
Speaker 3 (33:01):
Yeah, I buy.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
I buy all my seeds overseas. For all the different
tomatoes I bring them. I bring them home all the time.
The first thing I do is go to the seed
store wherever, Paris, roam anyplace looking for the right seeds.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
I'm taking notes.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
Yeah, I love I love all those things.
Speaker 4 (33:20):
I have a beautiful farm up in Hudson.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Yeah, she just said that. She just came back from there,
and it's so nice to be able to get away
for a few days.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
One of those days, one of these days we'll well,
we'll do something up in Hudson.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
But that would be great. They have some good food
up there now. Very it's very nice, very very nice.
So what what restaurant concept is in your mind for
the next restaurant? Do you have another one coming?
Speaker 3 (33:46):
Do we we have something coming here?
Speaker 2 (33:48):
We do so up in Hudson, like I mentioned, one
of these days we'll probably do our Italian embrace of
you know, wood fired of Oh what's growing up there?
Speaker 4 (33:58):
How great?
Speaker 2 (33:59):
Maybe we just make lunch.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
I don't know, you know, but do you make pizza?
Speaker 2 (34:04):
We make scachata, We make pizza.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
This has been such an interesting conversation. Is there anything
else you'd like to say, Hannah, Just come visit.
Speaker 4 (34:13):
Come visit.
Speaker 5 (34:14):
So tell us real community in the West Village because
of Jodi and Rita and so many people come in
every day to get butter and eggs at the store,
at the shop, and it's just it's a real neighborhood.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
So tell our listeners how they can follow you for
your spirits, the other goods that you sell and your
latest restaurant news. Do you have an Instagram?
Speaker 2 (34:38):
Yeah? You think we do?
Speaker 1 (34:39):
And which which one should we look at?
Speaker 2 (34:41):
Oh? You know, I think all the restaurants have Via
Kroota has an Instagram and Bar Pisolino Sodi. Yesodi's Instagram
is actually under Rita Sodi. What else, Commerson, the commerce
Emerson has his own. We're missing something, Oh, Fashina.
Speaker 4 (34:59):
And Forshena thirteen ninety seven.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Okay, So you know it's best just to take a
beautiful passage down in the West Village and.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
Better to come in person. So Grove Street in the
West Village in New York City, take a couple of
days and just and try each one of these as
it really is an experience. And I congratulate you so
much on everything that you've accomplished and these beautiful eateries
that you have created for all of us.
Speaker 3 (35:28):
So thank you so much, thank you.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
Thank you Hannah for reintroducing Micha Groves Street Welcome because
it's so great.
Speaker 4 (35:37):
It is so great.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
Thank you, thank you, thank you much.
Host
Martha Stewart
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce
Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.