Restaurateur John Gazzola at 31 is a savvy veteran of the industry ”“ and the oldest guy in the triumvirate of hosts at a recent restaurant opening in White Plains ”“ yet looks not long removed from senior photo day for his high school yearbook.
It was at Iona Prep in New Rochelle where Gazzola, Class of 1999, met Ralph Battista, Class of 2000. Battista at 30 still looks capable of landing in detention as the gleeful mastermind behind some sophomoric locker room prank. He is his old Iona friend”™s business partner as the two make a notable public debut in Westchester County as serial expansionists on restaurant row in downtown White Plains.
In May, Gazzola and his partners in Public House Investments joined with Battista as their regional partner and White Plains manager to open Mulberry Street Italian Kitchen on East Post Road. They followed that with the late-September opening of Butterfield 8, a walnut-paneled member of the American gastropub species, where the menu of executive chef Matt Safarowic ”“ he”™s younger than Gazzola but older than Battista ”“ includes Creole shrimp and grits, “tavern-style” meatloaf, pork belly sandwiches and “Homesick Texans” barbecue on Thursdays. The 5,000-square-foot bar and restaurant required what Gazzola called a “tricky” reconstruction of a former FedEx corner office at 147 Mamaroneck Ave.
Come November, Gazzola, Battista and Safarowic will venture next door on East Post Road to open Lola”™s Mexican Kitchen in a 3,000-square-foot space. “Mexican for Americans,” Battista, departing from standard public-relations text, described the restaurant concept and ethnic fare.
Lola”™s was not on the menu when Gazzola first eyed White Plains as a choice location for a Butterfield 8, two of which his company have opened in midtown Manhattan and Stamford, Conn. In Stamford, a Lola”™s Mexican Kitchen opened across the street from Butterfield.
“We think they complement each other well,” said Gazzola. Lola”™s brand of Mexican food “is definitely something that”™s missing” in the affluent metropolitan suburbs. “We noticed the same void in the White Plains market.”
“We”™ve literally been looking for about five years to find the right location in Westchester right here in White Plains,” said Gazzola. Their inaugural venture, Mulberry Street, an Italian family-style restaurant, “is one of those concepts that will grow slowly but will continue to grow for a long time.”
Gazzola himself grew up in the business in which he has found success, or success found him, at a youthful age. His family owned the Beechmont Tavern on North Avenue in New Rochelle, where he worked his way up the ranks from dishwasher to manager.
Graduating from Loyola College in Baltimore, he left his family”™s business and went to work in sales and marketing for East Coast Saloons L.L.C., the New York City company that launched the nationally popular McFadden”™s bar and restaurant chain. East Coast Saloons is headed by another Iona Prep graduate, John L. Sullivan.
Those old Iona ties need not in business forever bind. Gazzola left the company with a colleague to start Public House Investments. He was 24 when the partners opened their first New York City restaurant.
Seven years later, his company has launched nearly 20 restaurants in Philadelphia, Maryland, New York, Connecticut and Las Vegas, where its Public House restaurant opened in the Luxor Hotel and Casino.
“It”™s just really getting connected with the right people,”™ he said of his success. Working with older, more experienced partners “certainly allowed me to do a lot of things I wouldn”™t have been able to do on my own.”
Having suffered financial dyspepsia from 2008 to 2010, the restaurant industry began recovering about two years ago, said Gazzola. “It”™s definitely doing OK. We”™re kind of the first indicator of how the rest of the economy is going,” he said.
Battista too has worked in the industry since his schoolboy days. A chef trained at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park ”“ he tweets on Twitter as “DaChefRB” ”“ Battista started cooking at 15.
“I used to be a caddy at Scarsdale Golf Club,” he confessed between an afternoon ribbon-cutting ceremony and an evening grand opening at Butterfield 8. “I was terrible at it, so I got a job in the snack shop.” Over a vat of nachos with cheese in Scarsdale, an executive chef was born.
Battista had been cooking and directing kitchen staff at waterfront restaurants in downtown Yonkers when the guy one year ahead of him at Iona called in 2008 with an offer of a job at Butterfield 8 in New York. “We recruited him hard,” said Gazzola. Battista last worked at the company”™s Stamford gastropub before joining Gazzola in the ambitious White Plains venture.
“We only came to White Plains thinking we want to do the Butterfield 8,” said Gazzola. “We had been looking for five years to find a spot for Butterfield. When we did, we didn”™t find one, we found four spots.”
Yes, four. In November, Gazzola and Battista plan to start construction on a fourth restaurant in vacated bar and restaurant space at 199-201 East Post Road.
They have not decided what kind of restaurant that will be. “We”™re waiting to see what”™s missing here,” said Gazzola. “We don”™t want to just open another business. We want to fill a void in this area.”
Then they want to rest.
“We”™ve been expanding rapidly for a couple years,” said Gazzola. “We”™re looking to take a break now.”
