From his perch on the top rung of the St. Louis dining scene, Giovanni Gabriele takes a moment to remember his climb and when his dream of opening a restaurant in America became reality.
“It was April 16, 1973,” says Gabriele, the 66-year-old owner of Giovanni’s on the Hill. “My wife, Fina, was there. Our two boys were there, and Carmelo, the oldest who was 7, was helping as a busboy. It was a good opening, very exciting.”
Friendly, attentive service, a warm atmosphere, and classic Italian food were hallmarks of Giovanni’s on opening night. Today, 34 years later, they still set Giovanni’s apart, along with an owner whose exuberant personality and enthusiasm for the business has never waned. “There has not been a day when I didn’t feel like coming to work,” Gabriele says.
“Giovanni’s on the Hill has always been the standard here for service, food and atmosphere,” says Joe Bonwich, restaurant critic for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “It’s the whole package for high-end Italian dining: tableside preparation, waiters in formal attire, very elegant, a place to go for a memorable occasion. You don’t find those things much anymore.”
Astar magnet Bonwich says the Hill, where Giovanni’s is located, is a special St. Louis neighborhood. Immigrants from Italy settled there in the early 1900s and have been warmly welcoming their own and others ever since. Not surprisingly, given the Italians’ love of food, the Hill is also home to some of the area’s finest restaurants. One of these is Giovanni’s, where Gabriele has welcomed celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, Frank Sinatra, Yogi Berra and Paul McCartney, and a steady stream of local residents and visitors from across the country and around the world. He also has cooked for presidents and vice presidents, such as Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, Al Gore and both Bush presidents. Some of this attention from celebrities has been memorialized as menu items, such as a bow tie pasta dish for President Reagan named Farfalline del Presidente Reagan; chicken breast stuffed with prosciutto for the first President Bush; and Pappardelle alla Bella Oprah pasta, a dish for Oprah Winfrey. Presidential dish The stories of how these dishes were created are tales that Gabriele enjoys sharing, and cooking for President Reagan’s inauguration in 1981 tops the list. It began when Gabriele received a thick envelope from the White House inviting him to cook at the inauguration. Hardly believing what he read, Gabriele called the White House and said: “Are you sure it’s me? I’m just a little guy.” Inauguration officials told him, “Mr. Gabriele, we’ve been in your restaurant a couple of times, and we think it’s the best Italian restaurant in Missouri.” Gabriele flew to Washington, D.C., and cooked his farfalline for four days for thousands of dignitaries and guests. “On the last day,” he recalls, “this big guy comes into the kitchen and says, ‘Mr. Giovanni, Frankie wants a tray of pasta. He loves it.’ “Well, Frankie was Frank Sinatra. Then, 45 minutes after sending the pasta up, Frank Sinatra comes into the kitchen and says: ‘Giovanni, Giovanni, how do you make this pasta? It is delicious. Why don’t you call it presidential farfalline?’” Today, 26 years after Sinatra made that suggestion, Farfalline del Presidente Reagan remains the most popular item on the restaurant’s menu. Oprah’s dish was developed more recently. She came into the restaurant in 2004 and noticed the menu items for Presidents Reagan and Bush. “She loved Italian, and I felt I should make something for her,” Gabriele recalls. “I said, ‘Mrs. Oprah, I’m going to make something for you and name it after you.’ She was excited and said, ‘I’ve never had a pasta named after me.’” Afamily affair Gabriele’s journey to fine-dining prestige on the Hill began in Sicily, where he was born and raised in a large family of four boys and three girls. He got started in the restaurant business with his brother, Rosario Gabriele, who owned a fine-dining establishment in Sicily. “I had this dream of owning a restaurant in America,” he says, a dream fueled in part by his attraction to a girl named Fina Manno, who was a neighbor growing up in Sicily. “Fina went to live in St. Louis with her family,” he says. “After two years she came back to Sicily, and we were married in 1964. Then, together, we came to St. Louis.” Fina has four sisters whose husbands all went into the restaurant business in St. Louis. She also has a brother with a St. Louis restaurant. Giovanni Gabriele says his extended clan is the largest restaurant family in St. Louis, with two restaurants by him and five by Fina’s side of the family. Giovanni Gabriele’s brothers Vincenzo Gabriele and Agostino Gabriele operate a restaurant in Louisville, Ky. That restaurant, Vincenzo’s, was inducted into the Nation’s Restaurant News Fine Dining Hall of Fame in 2004. When Giovanni Gabriele arrived in America, he started his restaurant career at a place that had become very familiar to the entire family: Tony’s, a St. Louis restaurant owned by Vincent Bommarito, which was inducted into the NRN Fine Dining Hall of Fame in 1984. “I had five brothers-in-law, an uncle and a couple of nephews from the family work here,” Bommarito says. “They learned the business. They’re all good guys, hard-working guys. They’re my friends.” Bommarito says he often smiles when he visits some of the restaurants launched by those who worked at Tony’s. “I see them using the same menu items and the same candles we had here,” he says. “It’s what they worked with at Tony’s, it’s what they know, and they are all making it a success, living the American dream.” After seven years at Tony’s, Gabriele got a loan from the bank and purchased Agostino’s, a fine-dining restaurant that was owned by two of his brothers-in-law. “Agostino’s was doing well, but they both wanted to open their own restaurants,” he says. “I got a new liquor license, all new people. I started from scratch, which is the best way to start.” Beginning with the food From the start, Gabriele was involved in everything, especially the kitchen. After leaving Tony’s and before opening his new restaurant, he had taken cooking classes at a local culinary school. “I needed to blend my Italian palate with the American palate,” he says. Three years ago, Gabriele opened a second restaurant, Cafe Bellagio, a semiformal establishment in West St. Louis. His oldest son, Carmelo Gabriele, works the dining room there, and his other son, Frank Gabriele, a graduate of The Culinary Institute of America, is the chef. He also supervises the kitchen at Giovanni’s on the Hill. A third restaurant, Giovanni’s Little Place, was sold in 2004. Frank Gabriele says: “My dad is very hands-on at the restaurant. He’s there every night except Sunday, when we’re closed. “Now we’ve given him Monday night off, too,” he adds with a laugh. “I do the ordering, and chef James Hamilton, who has been at Giovanni’s for nearly 31 years, oversees just about everything that goes in and out of that restaurant.” PHONE: (314) 772-5958 WEBSITE: OPENED: 1973 CUISINE: classic Italian PER-PERSON DINNER CHECK AVERAGE WITH BEVERAGES: $70-$75 BEST-SELLING DISH: farfalline del Presidente Reagan SEATS: 85-90 AVERAGE WEEKLY COVERS: 450-550 CHEF: Frank Gabriele OWNER: Giovanni Gabriele On the subject of his father’s cuisine, Frank Gabriele says, “He has always maintained a classic Italian menu that focuses on the best possible ingredients for every dish from top to bottom.” Praise for the ambience The hospitality that Gabriele displays nightly at the restaurant is not lost on his customers. Paul Packman, a St. Louis psychiatrist, says he loves to eat out at restaurants, both in St. Louis and when he’s on the road giving lectures. He has been to scores of top-rated establishments, but Giovanni’s on the Hill is his favorite. “The service, the way the place looks and the quality of the food have been consistently excellent over the years,” he says. “There are many excellent restaurants, but what sets Giovanni’s apart is the wonderful environment. The staff and Giovanni and his two sons exude such warmth.” After managing his restaurant for more than three decades, Gabriele remains passionate about his work. “I love the business,” he says. “It’s challenging. You meet a lot of people, and it lets an Italian immigrant like me go to the White House and cook for presidents of the United States.”Menu Sampler Sliced grilled eggplant topped with fresh mozzarella, tomato, basil, olive oil and balsamic vinegar $8.95 Jumbo shrimp and roasted garlic in a brandy cream sauce $10 Scallops pan-seared with lemon and olive oil caper sauce $10 Pappardelle alla Bella Oprah with fresh tomatoes, basil pesto and imported ricotta cheese $20 Farfalline del Presidente Reagan with flakes of salmon and Parmigiano cheese in a cream sauce $20 Veal saltimbocca alla Giovanni’s with fresh sage, prosciutto and fontina cheese in a white wine sauce $28 Pollo alla Presidente Bush Chicken breast stuffed with prosciutto, Asiago cheese and spinach, dusted in breadcrumbs $24 Marinated, grilled veal chop with black truffle sauce $36 Linguine with cultivated white water clams and roasted garlic in a white wine sauce $22 Strawberry Grand Marnier semifreddo $7.50 Ladyfingers soaked in espresso, topped with mascarpone cheese and cocoa $8