Because this site focuses on news, Spotlight is reserved for companies that have been around for a while and don’t get the coverage they should. But in this case, Pepolino, the Italian restaurant on West Broadway and Lispenard, *is* in the news: the building that has housed it since 1999 recently sold (more on that below). So it seemed like a good time to meet co-owner Patrizio Siddu. His business partner, Enzo Pezone, was in Italy.

How did you get started in this business?
It’s a family matter. My mother was the personal cook in a wealthy family. She left that job when she got married, but as we grew up, she still cooked like crazy – two pastas, three main courses, two desserts every day. Sometimes friends would come for lunch and think it was a special event – but it was a normal thing. Thanks to her, I fell in love with cooking and eventually went to culinary school in Florence.

How did you end up in the United States?
I moved here in 1994 to open Savore Restaurant. The owner found me in Italy, at Cibrèo in Florence. Many Americans know this restaurant – it has been operating there since 1979. Enzo also worked at Cibrèo as a pastry chef. After Savore, I worked at other places in Midtown and at a catering company before we decided to open our own restaurant.

Why Tribeca?
We loved this area. We thought there was something special here and we were right. We loved people – over the last 25 years we have met almost everyone.

What are you known for?
Cibrèo was a truly unique place – one of the few places that didn’t make pasta. It was a rustic, country place. Lots of soups. When we came to New York, we wanted to keep it, but we had to add pasta. When autumn comes, we can try real Tuscan cuisine – game, such as homemade pappardelle with wild boar ragout, fettuccine with stewed rabbit.

What is the most popular dish?
Probably pappa al pomodoro – a typical Florentine bread soup. Spaghetti with stewed meats and parmesan. Cheesecake with ricotta – this is my friend’s recipe and it is amazing.

Your favorite dish right now?
Well, a lot of things. Meatballs with ricotta – they are very fluffy and incomparable to other meatballs. Serve with basil and garlic tomato coulis. It is very light.

Enzo Pezone

Aren’t you tired of cooking?
No, no. For us it is an artistic craft. You create something different every day. We have five or six different specialties so that people don’t get bored. I often go to Italy to find ingredients and recipes that help me create new things.

Patrizio Siddu

Tribeca has obviously changed a lot since you started. How have the changes affected your business?
We had 4 or 5 days of peace before the holidays. Now it’s about two weeks. And of course, the business environment has changed since covid. We were doing 40 to 50 people a day during lunch. The AT&T building was packed with people, and now I heard only five floors were rented. Wherever there used to be offices, this type of activity is missing. And it’s not just restaurants – cleaners, bars, everyone. It’s a different New York.

What percentage of your business is local?
Probably 60 percent. We have guests who used to live in the area and are very happy to find out we are still here. This is beauty. That we left a memory of them. Every time they come back to the city, they go to Pepolino. We are a local restaurant – and always have been. We saw children here who were newborns and now are students.

Where do you eat/drink here?
Honestly, I’m a family man – I don’t go out like I used to. But I like to have a drink at the Grand Eleven or the Roxy Hotel. (He lives in Forest Hills.)

What happened to the new owners?
They raised the rent – ​​about 40 percent more. This is a company that wants to make money and I understand that. I think they want us to be here. But we don’t have a lease at the moment. We do everything we can to just keep going.

How do you cope with such height??
We can pull it off, but it’s hard. I don’t know if it’s worth it in the end. One way is to arrive at 8am and leave at 10pm. But you still have to earn some money.

If this place ever closed, would you still cook?
Definitely forget about it. For us it’s not just work. We grew up with it – it’s in us. We can’t stop doing this. We’re thinking about a lot of things right now – it’s hard to predict what’s coming next. But we love this area. We would like to stay here.

What didn’t I ask?
We employ 30 people who survived in Pepolino – and since 1999 we have employed a lot of them. This means that 30 families are still leaving. We went through the Twin Towers, we went through Sandy, we went through the 2008 disaster and then covid. A lot of people are complaining in the restaurant industry right now, but we’re just trying to keep as many people as possible in these difficult times. I think the situation will definitely change. This is New York.