Owning a restaurant is a demanding business to which any restaurateur can attest.
“But, it”™s also a business that”™s definitely a lifestyle,” Joe Bastianich says.
And the Greenwich resident should know, he owns 25 restaurants, three wineries and is the recipient of two James Beard awards.
He got his first taste of the restaurateur”™s lifestyle of late hours, decadent indulgences and physical demands growing up as a kid in the ”™70s in Queens watching his mother, Lidia Bastianich, build her empire. Yes, that Lidia ”“ Italian chef, restaurant owner, television personality and author.
His early observations of the industry and his success stories are the subject of his new book, “Restaurant Man,” which comes out April 30.
The book came about because “it seemed like a pivotal point in my life as a lot of things were changing and I started to write down some thoughts after my father passed away” one year ago. Gradually, Bastianich had written “a collection of stories of what”™s happened in my life.”
In the memoir, “You see the evolution of restaurants in New York (and) in America in the ”™70s, ”™80s and ”™90s and you get an insider view into the underbelly of the restaurant beast from being kids growing up in Queens to opening Becco, my first restaurant, to opening Babbo with Mario.” That”™s Mario as in the superstar chef Mario Batali, who is Bastianich”™s longtime business partner and one-part instigator of their famous feasts that would supposedly last until 5 a.m. and could involve the two finishing off an entire case of wine.
Gone though are the days of this nonstop indulgence. Just a few years ago, before he turned 40, Bastianich developed serious health issues including obstructive sleep apnea, a disorder with life-threatening effects associated with obesity that had Bastianich sleeping with an air mask. It was all the motivation he needed to make lifestyle changes to save himself. Today Bastianich is more than 60 pounds lighter and found a calling for marathon running. In October he traveled to Kona, Hawaii, to compete in his first full Ironman triathlon. He still eats and drinks well, but in moderation.
“I”™m always thinking about what I eat because it”™s the most important thing. If you”™re not going to invest in that in life, then what are you going to invest in?”
Connecting through food
Bastianich”™s morning meals include honey produced from the bees he keeps in his Greenwich backyard. At Eataly, the Italian food market in downtown New York City that”™s a joint business venture between himself, his mother and Batali, they source products from friends.
At Eataly as well as his retail venue Tarry Market in Port Chester, Bastianich says, “It”™s very important to facilitate and create communication between the people who produce the food and the people who consume it. Knowing the people who make your food is really the job of the retailer or restaurateur, whether we”™re sourcing those products on the menu at Tarry Lodge or those sold at Tarry Market”¦ once we”™ve established we are the conduit, you can have a dialogue as a consumer with the people who are producing the food you eat and I think with something as personal as what you put in your body, you should have the privilege and the right to have that kind of relationship.”
The same conversation continues through Bastianich”™s wine ventures, which include the Bastianich winery in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, La Mozza in southwest Tuscany and Agricola Brandini in Piemonte, which produces certified sustainable Barolo. The way he sees it, drinking a glass of wine is an agricultural act.
“It”™s no different than eating a carrot or lettuce. Wine is basically fermented fruit juice and the processes in which wine is created are naturally occurring processes that we simply shepherd,” he said. “The role of the winemaker is really to allow the earth and the natural environment to act upon the vineyard and to create food to express itself, so really, the responsibility of the winemaker is to express something about where the wine is from.”
This is something he”™s been recognized for doing in style. In 2005 at age 35, Bastianich was awarded the James Beard Foundation”™s Outstanding Wine and Spirits Professional, which he calls “the Oscars of our business.”
“I was very honored and humbled to win that award, especially at a young age, and that was very much a launching pad,” said Bastianich, who then went on to win the foundation”™s Outstanding Restaurateur Award with Batali in 2008.
Quality wins out
Bastianich, who worked as a bond trader at Merrill Lynch before joining the family business, named his winemaking business his “purist passion.”
“In the world of immediacy and where you see restaurants come and go, wine is really one of the only things that we can pass on from one generation to another because the subject of wine and wine itself is something that truly takes more than one lifetime to immerse yourself in, so by the very nature of it, it must be transgenerational.”
The father of three said he hopes one of his children might be a winemaker, but he has “no agenda” when it comes down to them continuing the family business.
“I”™m not going to push them into doing anything when they can do whatever they want,” he said, echoing his own parents”™ initial suggestions to avoid the industry by becoming a dentist or a similar standard ideal of success.
The turning point came when “there was a certain point in the world in general where restaurants became less of a blue collar job and more of a sexy, sophisticated, media-driven, fancy world to live in. Restaurants, when I grew up in the 70s, were a hardcore blue-collar existence. It was physical, demanding work.”
While the restaurant industry has suffered “a little bit of a shakedown” in recent years, Bastianich said that “quality preserves and”¦ we”™re having a great year.” He noted the success of the detail-oriented, quality service-minded and value-oriented Port Chester hotspot Tarry Lodge.
Beyond its role in experience-driven venues, food holds entertainment value in America through the fast popularity of competitive cooking shows. And Bastianich will continue playing his part as judge in the third season of Fox”™s hit series “MasterChef” this summer.
From running around kitchens to running wineries to running marathons to running primetime competitions to running a close-knit family, somehow Bastianich still finds time for his singer-songwriter side project ”“ he played just last week at Eataly.
“I have like 50 guitars. The one I play the most is a Martin D-28 made in 1968 with Brazilian cherry wood.” Bastianich, a real Renaissance man, actually got his singing start when he studied in the highly selective opera program at The Juilliard School.
So how did the businessman manage to become such a complete package? “Oh,” Bastianich paused, “there are lots of hours in the day, you make time for everything.”
