My Journey as a Restauranteur
I own an Italian bakery/restaurant in Harlem! This was never in the plans, not when coming to the USA, not when I was growing up, not even in college studying chemistry!
I was born in Ethiopia and have lived in many places as a child – never in Italy. I didn’t know much about Harlem but somehow a series of unexpected circumstances landed me in Harlem with an Italian Restaurant and oh, I am also NOT a chef! This was never my fantasy – it’s just my journey!
I married into a family of restauranteurs and bakers. My husband Nino had a restaurant in Chelsea and bakeries in the Village and Brooklyn with his family. I realized early in my marriage that you can’t be married to anyone in hospitality and not be involved in it, and so slowly I got into the business.
My first job was learning the food. Nino is an amazing food historian and the menu at his first restaurant named Café Bondi (his mother’s maiden name) was created with the help of food historian Luisa Di Giovanni. There, I learned about both Sicilian food and regional Italian food. I then started writing a quarterly newsletter as a way to connect with the clientele and learn the cuisine.
Bondi was a gem in Chelsea and anyone looking for authentic Sicilian food or just a beautiful dining experience had been to Bondi. The most memorable part of those years when the Slow Food movement was just getting started was the diversity of seasonal cooking and the longing for authenticity. Back then, there was an association of Authentic Regional Italian restaurants (ORPI) and Nino was president. This enabled us to try different restaurants in search of authenticity and diversity in region. That involved many delicious meals and meeting amazing restauranteurs, the likes of Lidia Bastianich, Angelo Vivolo, Tony May and many more. These were the 90’s, when New York city was a string of little villages connected by an amazing transportation system! This experience did not teach me the art of cooking but I learned the complexity of the business of fine dining, the diversity and matching of tastes and flavors, and so much more!
I had learned all I could about Italian food – regional Italian food – and because my home country of Ethiopia was not accessible at the time, I made Italy a second home for my children. They learned the language and spent their summers there. I made very dear friends during those years, all over Italy, and was graced with many delicious meals.
Along the way our children changed our path. Nino gave up Bondi but kept the bakery in Brooklyn, we moved to the suburbs in search of good schools, and opened 2 bakeries close to home in the River Towns – a very short detour! Driving back and forth to Westchester we discovered Harlem, mostly by night on the way home.
That was just the beginning. Over the years I have tried to name my profession and the best title I can give myself is an “Entrepreneur with a vision”!