By Ivan Pereira
Pasquale Fabiano, the new manager of Il Vesuvio on Bell Boulevard, isn’t a stranger to the Italian restaurant business.
After nearly 14 years of running two restaurants in Rome, the 33−year−old decided to take some of his expertise and insight from Europe and bring it to Bayside.
“We’ve been trying to make a better product,” Fabiano said of the restaurant’s new pizzas.
Over the last few weeks, the restaurateur and his older brother, Giovanni, have been changing the store’s look without sacrificing its appeal with longtime customers. With a different menu and a new counter that displays the different pizzas through glass windows, Fabiano said he tries to give his customers more choice in their meals.
In addition, he said he will be unveiling more extensive dishes outside the pies that give the eater a true Italian meal.
“The eggplant parmigiana [in America] isn’t really eggplant parmigiana,” he said. “It has to do with the quality of the fish and meat.”
Fabiano, who grew up in Ridgewood but now lives in Mineola, L.I., said he enjoys working in the business. In addition to cooking meals in the kitchen, he says he likes the social side of running an eatery.
“It’s about getting to meet a lot of people and seeing what their habits are like,” he said.
When he was 19, Fabiano decided to take those loves to a professional level and moved to Italy, where he was born, to start his own restaurant. One of those eateries, called Sacro e Profano, was located near the famous Trevi Fountain and served customers traditional Mediterranean cuisine.
Even though the restaurant continues to be successful, Fabiano said he decided to move back to Queens to see how he could bring that Italian style to the United States.
“Every [other] restaurant and pizza, you know, it’s the same thing,” he said.
Reach reporter Ivan Pereira by e−mail at ipereira@timesledger.com or by phone at 718−229−0300, Ext. 146.
