I haven’t made a point to visit many celebrity restaurants, though I’ve heard of a few around New York (including Tribeca Grill, which Robert De Niro is a partner in) that are supposed to be quite good. Generally, my thinking is that if I’m going to spend a bunch of money to eat at a place known in part for its ties to a celebrity, that celebrity better be a celebrity chef. I’m happy to spend too much money at Mario Batali’s Eataly and Otto, but I’m less likely to show up at Michael Jordan’s The Steakhouse, NYC. It’s cool that he’s rich enough to throw money at a restaurant, but I feel more comfortable buying basketball shoes with his name on them than a T-Bone steak.
That said, celebrity endorsed and owned restaurants often do very well. This may be partly for the same reason people buy US Weekly magazines to see celebrities picking up after their dogs and tickets to Madame Tussauds to see celebrities’ wax replicas up close: in a word, obsession. If you go to a celebrity-owned, or a celebrity family-owned restaurant, you’re doing something related to the celebrity, and maybe even holding on to the off-off-off chance that De Niro himself will drop by and see how the night is shaping up.
It’s for that reason that Joanne Trattoria, Lady Gaga’s parents’ soon-to-open Upper West side Italian restaurant, will probably do well even if the food is mediocre, at least for a while.
It’s hard to imagine a new restaurant with more heavyweight support behind it than Joseph and Cynthia Germanotta’s new spot. There’s Lady Gaga herself, one of the biggest pop stars who ever lived, who has already lent tremendous support by merely mentioning it offhand here and there. There’s Art Smith, chef and partner in the business, whose resume includes a stint as Oprah’s personal cook. Having a celebrity chef make the food for a celebrity restaurant certainly compounds the “it” factor. And just yesterday the New York Times ran a charming article about Joanne Trattoria in the Dinging & Wine section, complete with a photo of the interior, with its low-key décor, skylights, and adorable back patio.
I’m sure next week the Times will tell us how the food tastes. “The fare will be Southern Italian, Ms. Germanotta said, in the sense that Mr. Smith is Southern and the Germanottas are Italian,” wrote the paper. Granted, New York needs another Italian restaurant like the world needed another pop star six years ago, but at the same time, if it’s good, New York always needs another Italian restaurant (and the world always needs more music).
Who knows if it will succeed, we’ll stay tuned, but for now the cards are stacked high in its favor. I’m cautiously optimistic that it will be worth a visit, based partly on Smith’s involvement, partly on the description of the food, and partly on an adorable quote that Mr. Germanotta gave the Times about his daughter: “She just generates a lot of sizzle.”
Joseph and Cynthia Germanotta will open the doors next Wednesday.
January 25, 2012 at 4:02 pm, Anonymous said:
A restaurant is a notoriously difficult business. Unlike a product on a shelf to be sold, food has to made every day and has to be good every day or the place is going to be as quiet as a cemetery at three in the morning.
Mr. Germanotta is going to feel pressure in more than one way – the normal way of running a restaurant and the added way of being a semi celebrity. With a daughter who possesses a fanatical desire to win (succeed), she places, albeit inadvertently, the burden to do likewise.
He strikes me as a down to earth fellow ( I follow him on Twitter ) and, in part, that could, very well, be an important ingredient in making this a successful culinary venue.
With wife, Cynthia, they have done a wonderful job parenting, and thus managing, a daughter with a prolific aptitude for being different. That alone could be a predictor of what lies ahead for Mr. G. and Joanne’s.
david alan kjoller
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