Photo by George Mahe
Today's news includes a little bit of restaurant hopscotch.
In short, the Delmar location of The Pasta House Co. (8213 Delmar) is moving to the Giovanni’s Kitchen location (8831 Ladue), where the last day of service is November 6.
After a devasting fire at Giovanni’s on the Hill almost three years ago, the restaurant will be rebuilt beginning next week. The Pasta House site at the corner of Delmar at Bonhomme will become a Total Access Urgent Care.
The wheels were set in motion in July, when the University City City Council voted to approve Total Access Urgent Care's conditional-use permit for the property, which allowed the urgent care chain to move forward with its purchase. At the time, The Pasta House had three years left on the lease, and Total Access had no plans to expedite the move unless The Pasta House chose to do so.
“We certainly want them to exist,” says Total Access founder, president, and chief executive officer Dr. Matthew Bruckel, “but if they are going to close, then yes, we will build an urgent care there.”
Frank Gabriele (who owns Giovanni’s Kitchen, Giovanni’s on the Hill, and Il Bel Lago with his brother Carmelo) reports that while sales at Il Bel Lago have been robust after adding extra tables to an already large patio, sales at Giovanni’s Kitchen had been soft during the pandemic. So when The Pasta House Co. approached him to take over the Giovanni’s Kitchen location, he decided to move ahead, allowing Total Access to follow through on its plans.
Sam Garanzini, an executive with The Pasta House, says the Delmar location (which happens to be the flagship) will close in early December, and the new location in Ladue will open at approximately the same time. (Before The Pasta House opened on Delmar in 1967, the building housed an early incarnation of another local institution, the original Rich & Charlie’s.) The Pasta House currently operates 15 restaurant locations in Missouri and Illinois, as well as an outpost at St. Louis Lambert International Airport. The company also owns The Pasta House Co. Pronto!, a fast-casual restaurant in Brentwood.
Garanzini reports that the Pasta House menu in Ladue will be the same as the other locations, adding that its family meal deals have become a significant part of its sales during the pandemic. Seating will be less than at the flagship (90 seats versus 165), which Garanzini concedes may be a moot point for awhile. “We had been doing a healthy takeout business long before the dining rooms closed,” he says. “It only got better after that.”
The deal with The Pasta House allowed Gabriele to focus on rebuilding Giovanni’s on the Hill. “We got the go-ahead to begin rebuilding there several months ago,” Gabriele says, “which my brother and I always said we’d do. With Giovanni’s Kitchen closing, we can concentrate on that.”
Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Giovanni and Frank Gabriele in 2014
His father, Giovanni Gabriele, opened Giovanni’s on the Hill in 1973. The restaurant went on to win AAA's Four Diamond Award 28 years in a row. In remembering the late patriarch, dining writer Ann Lemons Pollack wrote, “It was as much about the hospitality, the Gabriele family says, as the food.” Even Danny Meyer, the reigning king of hospitality, took notice, writing of Giovanni’s: “Giovanni Gabriele made me feel like a young VIP in front of my dates.”
The food became legendary as well. When Giovanni was invited to participate in a dinner at President Ronald Reagan’s first inauguration, his contribution was a dish with farfalle, hot-smoked salmon, and Parmigiano cheese.
Lemons Pollack reports that another pasta dish, Pappardelle alla Bella Oprah, came out of a relatively unexpected visit from Oprah Winfrey and a small group, who ate downstairs with the typical patrons. While the patriarch had heard of Oprah, Pollack noted that he did once turn down a touring musician's request for a private room. Fortunately, the next generation of Gabrieles quickly set him straight, and Sir Paul McCartney got an upstairs room and dinner.
As a tribute to his father, Frank says Giovanni’s classic Italian menu will remain pretty much as it was before (including the two dishes mentioned above), but the atmosphere will more closely resemble the modern Il Bel Lago when it reopens in mid-2021.
“I’m just excited not to have to pay rent anymore,” says Frank.
