What's the new Poughkeepsie restaurant going to be like?
It's going to be very casual. Very similar to Cucina, but mixed with just a bit of Market Street. Our hope is to draw a lunch crowd, so good healthy stuff, big salads, not too expensive to make a habit of, a regular thing. For dinner, it will be romantic and warm, candlelight, still very casual, with the kind of menu where you can choose to spend a lot of money and get great value for it, but you won't have to—you can still eat something simple and wonderful and well made. We want to do a great bar, the kind people love to hang out in; maybe we'll look at a nice TV for sports, try to bring in more of the students.
You could obviously work anywhere in the world at this point. Why this area?
The Hudson Valley is home. I live up here and it's going to be my residence for a long time, it's time for me to settle. My roots are planted here—I love the people and the farmers and the food, the beautiful seasons and the good nature—not just the trees and the mountains and the river but the human nature. There's no real crime; people get along. So I guess opening a third place, I'm just planting those roots even deeper.
I mean, there are times it would be nice to be warmer, like this whole past few months, but you can always go to Florida for a weekend.
Are there more expansion plans in the works?
Ultimately, who knows? We're always open to a great opportunity. I love Kingston, that beautiful historic area. For now it's one step at a time, and Market Street is still a very young restaurant too. But I'm always looking for talented young—well, talented people young and old—to work with, and so far I have been very lucky in finding them. We're a good team, all honest people. I just want to keep the energy going and treat everyone well—coworkers, neighbors, customers. The art of the restaurant business is giving people an amazing experience. We're here to be nice to people, and like anything else, if I give to you and you give to me, no corporate mentality—we all sleep more comfortable.
I know you published a pasta cookbook not long back; are there more cookbooks in the works?
I actually have four books all together, three published through the Culinary Institute: A Tavola!: Recipes and Reflections on Traditional Italian Home Cooking, then there was Italian Cooking at Home with The Culinary Institute of America, and the third one is Pasta. We still pitch, we're always pitching ideas—it would be fun to write about small plates maybe—but publishing is very tight right now and there are a million people writing cookbooks. I'm just lucky the CIA has still published some of my work. They've been really good to me in so many ways.
I was interested to see that Tony Bourdain wrote about you.
He's wonderful, just a really smart and warm guy. We worked together for a year and a half. Tony writes from his soul, you can see his soul in all his work. And deep. He's been on a panel talking politics with Andersen Cooper! He's a party animal, but that's beside the point. Now, he's married his lovely lady from Sardinia—he found a wonderful Italian girl and had a baby, he's a very happy father. Still—he invited me to a party but I knew it would be too much party for me. I'm tiny, I can't drink but one drink. So, no party, but if he asked me to go on a trip with him, I would.
So when do the doors open, and what are you calling this place?
We're thinking the middle to the end of April sometime. And the name is Gusto. Taste.
