By Bill Parry
Gianna Cerbone-Teoli has three loves. Her family, her restaurant and her community. All three are in Long Island City.
Once considered to be one of the city’s “Little Italies,” LIC has been transformed from a gritty industrial waterfront after-thought to a booming “It” neighborhood with shiny new residential towers with more on the way.
“I was born here and remember what it was like and I want that same sense of community to live on,” she said. “It’s very difficult to keep it a neighborhood while there’s so much growth, but I’m determined to help make it a positive place for the children. I’m raising my own two sons here.”
Cerbone-Teoli’s restaurant, Manducatis Rustica at 46-33 Vernon Blvd., is know throughout western Queens, and the rest of the city, for its fine southern Italian cuisine. Locally, it’s also something of a community center.
When Hurricane Sandy swamped so many homes and businesses with floodwaters from the East River and the polluted Newtown Creek, Cerbone-Teoli enlisted the help of her neighbors in cleaning up the restaurant. The following week she opened her doors to the same neighbors and everyone in western Queens when she hosted U.S Rep. Carolyn Maloney’s emergency town hall meeting. The community got to meet face to face with officials from FEMA and the Small Business Association. When she realized how many of her neighbors would need help with paperwork, she turned her restaurant over to those agencies for weeks after the storm.
When she heard that Trinity Grace Church had lost its lease, Cerbone-Teoli canceled her lucrative Sunday brunch and turned Manducatis Rustica over to Pastor Jakob Zaske and his flock. Four years later she helped Trinity Grace Church find a new home and restored her Sunday brunch.
She called the whole experience a blessing and said financial losses have been recouped partially because so many of the churchgoers have returned as customers throughout the years.
“I’ve been mocked to the point where people say I should worry more about the business,” Cerbone-Teoli said. “But you see, I call this my neighborhood. I grew up here and have so much passion. I remember playing soccer in the middle of the street. Now it’s so busy you can’t even cross the street.”
With such change comes animosity, especially from the old timers in the neighborhood. “I like the change, there’s an energy here now, the more business the better,” she said. “I respect the people coming in as well as all the old people who have always lived here. I think it’s important to keep a balance between the old and new, important to listen to all sides in disputes that crop up. There’s rarely two sides to a story, around here it’s more like five sides.”
Cerbone-Teoli, 46, who is known as Mama Gianna or Mama G., said she has no intention of running for elected office in the future, something she is asked frequently.
“Politics is not my cup of espresso, but I will always support my local politicians who support the community,” she said.
Reach reporter Bill Parry by e-mail at bparry@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4538.
