[Kitchen Nightmares] No dream ending for Café Tavolini in Black Rock
Ubiquitous
The reality TV show — which exposes a restaurant’s weaknesses, remakes
the eatery and then shows it all off with a grand re-opening — will air
the Café Tavolini episode on Friday, March 25, at 8 p.m.
Sometimes the result for the restaurant is positive, sometimes not. For
Café Tavolini the result was the latter.
The show that will air Friday on Fox will show just how Chef Gordon
Ramsay was able to save the restaurant, at least for a little while. It
will also show that more trouble was percolating beneath the surface
than simply the sour economy.
Café Tavolini opened to rave reviews in 2006 and had close to three good
years before the economy nosedived during the recession and business
started to drop.
Things went from bad to worse at Café Tavolini from a financial
perspective, according to Lisa Restivo, who ran the restaurant with her
husband, Keith, its owner.
Stockbrokers and business people stopped taking customers out to eat, as
companies slashed their spending.
Things got tougher from the mounting financial pressure, and the couple
began “fighting every day,” Lisa said. It put a strain on their
marriage. Still, they persevered and managed to hang on to a loyal
following of customers.
Since it became impossible for the restaurant to pay two salaries, Lisa
opened Bella Collections, a boutique at 2980 Fairfield Ave. that she
co-owns with Bonnie Gabrys, last July.
The boutique took off. It didn’t cost a lot to get off the ground
because people bring things in to sell on consignment, Lisa said.
Lisa originally sought out the celebrity chef for his culinary vision
three years ago, but it took a long time to schedule the visit, and
things were getting worse.
In the Kitchen Nightmares show, Chef Ramsay visits troubled restaurants
and offers the last chance to help turn them around.
Relaunch dinner sizzles
During his stay at flagging restaurants, Ramsay observes their inner
workings to get to the root of the problem. Along the way, he reveals
the often painful truth about what went wrong.
The Kitchen Nightmares staff invited The Bridgeport News to experience
the relaunch dinner on Dec. 16, following the chef’s weeklong stay and
total restaurant redo.
The relaunch dinner gives the restaurant owners an opportunity to put
into practice all the culinary, sanitary and design changes the chef has
implemented, while still under his direct supervision.
Candles and a black-and-gold motif adorned the restaurant’s “small
tables” (the Italian meaning of Tavolini) during the dinner service.
Set against warm wheat walls, accented with gold lamé word art, the
décor was neither flashy nor subdued, a fitting choice for the
restaurant’s size and down-to-earth yet artsy Black Rock locale.
Keith greeted guests at their tables and invited them to try the house
special chocolate martini, an indulgent introduction to what everyone
hoped would be a memorable culinary feast.
The martini got many takers and didn’t disappoint. With a rich and silky
mouthfeel, it was not too heavy, not too light — just right.
The wine list was still at the printer, but the server recommended the
Louis Martini Cabernet Sauvignon, a reliable choice. It complemented the
hearty meal with aromas and flavors of red cherry, blackberry and fresh
sage, melded into subtle herbal notes.
A question about the ingredients in the olive tapenade, served with
crusty bread, brought Chef Ramsay to the table. One of the guests
thought he detected tomatoes.
“No ‘tomah-toes,’” the chef said in his British accent, his eyes
twinkling in amusement.
The black-and-gold color scheme carried through on the menu, which
contained the same stylistic word art that was on the walls. Its limited
offerings contrasted with the restaurant’s original lengthy, traditional
Italian choices, impossible to offer fresh at such a small establishment
all the time.
Gone, too, was the early bird special with its low fixed price, popular
with diners but bad for the bottom line.
The new menu contained about five selections each under appetizers,
salads, entrées, sides and desserts. The printing job had been rushed;
some of the words were misspelled.
The four guests at The Bridgeport News table tried practically
everything on the menu, some of them family style.
For starters, marinated shrimp crostini with garlic, chilies and
tomatoes had the surprise element of being served cold.
A plentiful plate of oyster mushrooms and polenta cakes with capers and
percorino (spelling error) absorbed its accent flavorings deliciously.
The server explained that branzino with roasted fennel, lemon and
grilled scallions was the fish of the day and could be any kind of white
fish available at market.
Attractively presented on the plate with a small piece of tail as a
decorative element, it was fresh, not fishy, albeit a tad dry.
The porchetta with sage, aniseed, thyme, and garlic — a classic dish —
was nicely spiced and well prepared. The osso buco veal demi glace with
gremolata and radicchio, although over-salted, pulled right off the
bone, cooked to perfection.
The server misunderstood a request to share the four dessert choices on
the menu family style. He brought four servings of each one but
apologized for the misunderstanding and promised to issue credit on the
tab.
The yogurt panna cotta was the thumbs-up favorite — moist, sweet and
light, with almond gremolata.
The lemoncella (spelling error) cheesecake with blackberries and
raspberries was another crowd-pleaser, and the arborio rice pudding with
cinnamon and fig syrup went down easily. The olive oil cakes with orange
spiced syrup and vanilla cream was dry, the least favorite.
The restaurant’s ending was not so sweet.
The lights go out
Lisa was optimistic after Chef Ramsay’s visit to Café Tavolini and still
hoped to make a go of it. “It was an honor to have someone so brilliant
totally reinvent us,” she said.
“Going forward with all the changes will make Keith and I stand out,”
she said during the relaunch dinner. “The sky is the limit. We’re
energized, and seeing it through new eyes. We expect to get better and
better. We’re so fortunate.”
In a phone call after Christmas, Keith said his fingers were crossed
he’d be able to fill three New Year’s Eve seatings, but his voice
sounded worried.
During a follow-up lunchtime visit in January, the dining room was empty
except for a couple of people seated at the bar. The butternut squash
rigatoni with brown butter, ricotta and sage was a hit at the return
visit.
The first of a series of blizzards blanketed the area at the time, and a
snowplow was clearing the space in front of the restaurant.
A week later, the restaurant went dark. A note in the window said it was
closed for a private party and would reopen in a week.
Meanwhile, the restaurant’s Web site domain name had expired Dec. 27. A
for-sale sign appeared outside the building; however, the Restivos
rented space and did not own the building.
The answering machine with Keith’s voice on it said they had closed for
a bit for “medical reasons” and would return.
Another message soon followed. The second message from Keith said he
expected to reopen in March.
Keith’s sudden decision to close the restaurant less than a month after
Chef Ramsay’s visit startled everyone, especially Lisa. She said she was
“shocked” when her husband abruptly gave the staff 20 minutes’ notice
that he was shutting it down.
The couple separated a few days later. Keith could not be reached for
this story.
“Gordon gave us the last hope,” Lisa said. “I didn’t think Keith would
close it without giving it a chance.”
The glow of its outdoor lighting, made even brighter under the glare of
the television cameras only a month before, had permanently gone out.
People who had purchased gift certificates were not able to redeem them.
Lisa said they had sold only a small number because of the sluggish
economy. She said those who have them would get their money back if they
contacted the attorney general’s office.
A spokeswoman in the attorney general’s office confirmed the receipt of
at least one complaint but was not able to confirm whether it had been
resolved.
The “Kitchen Nightmares” show about Café Tavolini will air with all of
Chef Ramsay’s no-holds-barred, brass-knuckled advice, behind-the-scenes
exposé and gritty language.
Today, there is no Café Tavolini, but although the café’s own private
nightmare did not get a dream ending, it did bring a bit of a silver
lining for some of the restaurant staff.
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