MY NEW YORK STORY
Pino Luongo: Passion & Pasta
Opening a restaurant is nothing new to Pino Luongo, but when COVID-19 swept in right after a signed a lease for his new Coco Pazzeria, well, it got complicated. Luongo, who left Italy nearly 40 years ago to pursue an acting career, discovered his true passion was preparing fresh, simple Tuscan cuisine for New Yorkers. It caught on, and he opened restaurants here and in other cities, mentored some now-famous chefs, created Tuscan Square (a forerunner to another well-known Italian food marketplace), and authored a few books. A 1993 New York Times profile on Luongo by food writer Florence Fabricant was headlined From Busboy to Supreme Leader.
Just before the New York State shut down indoor dining in March 2020, there were than 27,000 restaurants, according to the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The department doesn’t yet have current figures, but Yelp, which tracks restaurant openings, shows about 2,000 fewer. In addition, the city had 173,500 restaurant employees in June, a 38 percent drop from the 280,000 who were working in December 2019, according to the New York State Department of Labor. In addition to the loss of customers and workers, escalating food costs and delivery delays had added to the problem.
A LONG ROAD HOME
Luongo has worked long and hard for what he has built and was dismayed at how poorly the city and state managed this crisis. One example was the city’s dizzying list of varying COVID-19 rules for indoor/outdoor dining, differences in types of proofs of vaccination, where to post signs, what to require from guests. And the list goes on…
After enduring months of chaos that Luongo termed “a nightmare” with sick workers and delays, Coco Pazzeria finally opened at 59th Street and First Avenue. It is an elegant place where you can enjoy a variety of individual small pizzas, salads, and desserts. On a recent warm and bright Friday, all tables inside and outside were occupied.
UPTOWN/DOWNTOWN
While the sidewalks of New York don’t appeal to everyone as a prime dining area, Luongo, who has a Coco Pazzo Trattoria on Spring Street, noted that downtown restaurants are packed. “It’s a younger generation there,” he said, that “doesn’t mind sitting together outside, even in winter.” But “Church Street is a mess,” he added, and area residents complain about the noise, parking, and other problems. Luongo prefers outdoor dining the old-fashioned way when the weather is good, and you sit down among planters.
Ironically, Luongo’s signature restaurant, Morso on 59th Street, near Sutton Place, has always used its private terrace—with planters—for diners during the warm weather. Operating with only 60 percent of the staff, he is determined not to let Morso close, although many regular clients have stayed home. “People who never cooked in their lives began to dine at home,” he noted. Many began ordering ingredients or ready-made meals from the ghost kitchens—also called digital kitchens. Once limited primarily to pizza and Chinese takeout, meal delivery is now the fastest-growing restaurant industry segment, and it more than doubled around the world during the pandemic. A London research firm predicts ghost kitchens will be a $1 trillion industry in the next decade.
WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS
The National Restaurant Association calls 2022 a transition year as recovery continues, and 51 percent of adults say they aren’t eating at restaurants as often as they would like. On the other hand, tourists return, and Broadway theaters reopen. Restaurants struggle to cope with the new demand to find workers. Luongo believes it will be a while before we know the future.
“I don’t know if we can go back,” he said. “This will be “the learning year. This is a correction for the wrong steps.” Luongo is optimistic enough to continue with another new venture, a small seafood restaurant on Prince Street in Soho.
Decades of operating restaurants have taught Luongo how to deal with change, and that’s what it takes to be on the leading edge of the business in New York City. “To stay competitive, we must produce good food at the right price,” he said. He projects confidence that his and other restaurants will survive and grow with change. And so will the New Yorkers who love to dine out. (Even if some of them will have a new way to dine in.)
For more information on Pino Luongo and his restaurants, visit morso-nyc.com