Their Plate, Your Palate: Nicolinni's Pat Lavanty
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- Meet Damier Cescon at D’Vino in Niles; Nick Mileto at the Springfield Grille in Boardman, Patrick and Stephanie Lavanty at Nicolinni’s, also in Boardman, Justin Winck and Ken Daughenbaugh at the Whitefire Grille & Spirits in Canfield, and Chris Jenkins and Ron Quaranta at Caffe Capri in Boardman.
What distinguishes five of the finest restaurants in the Mahoning Valley is their executive chefs and these chefs’ attention to detail.
All this week BusinessJournalDaily.com is introducing readers to the chefs at five of the finest restaurants in the Mahoning Valley.
Our series, originally published in The Business Journal, began Monday with a profile of the Springfield Grille’s Mileto (READ STORY).
Today we profile Patrick Lavanty, owner and chef at Nicolinni’s.
‘Anything we can make, we do make’
Patrick Lavanty | Nicolinni's
Nicolinni’s has a menu that offers everything the Mahoning Valley expects an Italian restaurant to serve. As owner and executive chef Patrick Lavanty observes, “The Youngstown area has its own Italian-American culinary dialect.”
From antipasto to wedding soup to sautéed Italian greens to veal marsala and chicken piccata to several types of pasta and sauces to tiramisu and a rolled and stuffed pretzel, Nicolinni’s serves it. And a lot more.
Lavanty handles all aspects of running the restaurant with eight full-time line cooks, four dishwashers, and “14 servers on a busy night.” Nicolinni’s can seat 262 plus another 30 on the patio outside. His wife, Stephanie, is the pastry chef.
Students at culinary schools have served internships with the Lavantys but none at present.
“Anything we can make, we do make,” Patrick Lavanty says of the choices his restaurant offers.
Lavanty was born in a restaurant. OK, that’s an exaggeration. Asked how long he’s been in the business, he responds, “My whole life.” He pauses.
“My family started Lavanty’s Pizza on the North Side in 1962” and went on to establish the first Nicolinni’s Ristorante on Belmont Avenue before relocating to 1912 S. Raccoon Road in Austintown.
The site Nicolinni’s II has occupied since 2005, on Boardman-Poland Road at Tiffany Boulevard South, began as a China Coast restaurant, then Cooker’s, both then owned by Darden. When Cooker declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the building remained vacant until it was subdivided and Nicolinni’s moved in.
This is the time of year when Nicolinni’s “really ramps up with family gatherings and company Christmas parties,” Lavanty says, and he and his wife put in increasingly longer days. He usually arrives at 8 a.m. to set up the steam well and heat up the marinara sauce in preparation for the lunch crowd. The prep cooks arrive at 6.
Lavanty works side by side with them as they make, based on family recipes, the salad dressings and soups from scratch. On weekends the Lavantys’ children, Nicholas, 6, and Giada, 5, come in from time to time. “Already Nicholas tries to help,” Stephanie says proudly. “Giada likes to work with me in the bakery.”
The chef describes himself as “big on braised short ribs, veal chops – big, rich flavors. I’m a meat-and-potatoes kind of guy” who wants to share what he enjoys with his guests.
Lavanty, a business administration major at Youngstown State University, never set foot in a culinary school. “I’m self-taught,” he says. “I’m like a sponge. I absorb what others have taught me. … I have a wealth of knowledge.”
Along the way he developed “good habits,” he says, but Lavanty is self-deprecating about his organizational talents and cooking ability. He was uncomfortable calling himself a chef, allowing he has the title mostly because he owns the restaurant.
His talents at organization come into play when tourist buses stop outside with no warning and the retirees or shoppers come inside. He and his staff rise to the occasion, which might be why the drivers return.
His efforts at diplomacy come into play when customers either have “unrealistic expectations” or can’t make up their minds about what they want. They then complain about the food and the service. Such episodes are rare, he (and the other chefs) says. But they have a disruptive influence – sometimes they’re trying to get a free meal, lower bill or gift certificate – and make for an unpleasant couple of hours.
Lavanty tries to take such customers in stride. “The laws of physics still apply,” he notes. “You can’t rush perfection.”
People “eat first with their eyes,” Lavanty says. The soups, salads and entrees “must be visually appealing. The shape of the plates act as a garnish.” The white china at Nicolinni’s has some shapes out of the ordinary.
Stephanie oversees the beer, wine and liquor the restaurant serves. The alcoholic beverages break down to one-third hard liquor, one-third wines and one-third beer. “We have 50 types of beer,” she says, and Budweiser remains the best selling brand.
“I have a wine tasting every other month,” she says. The majority of the wines served – the list is extensive, she says – come from California.
At the end of the day – and at least one Lavanty is there every night to close the restaurant – what they like best are the compliments their customers pay them and their servers. “You live for the compliments,” Patrick Lavanty says. “You like being told how great their meal was.”
Better yet is being recognized in a supermarket, stopped in an aisle and told, “That was the best meal! It was just like grandma’s [fill in the blank].”
WEDNESDAY: Ken Daughenbaugh and Justin Winck, Whitefire Grille
Editor's Note: First published in the November edition of The Business Journal.
Copyright 2013 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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