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Innovation and hard work keep Giambelli’s on 50th fresh after 25 years in New York City -restaurant

Susan Spedalle

NEW YORK –Perhaps you have seen Francesco Giambelli on television recently. In a commercial that airs three times a day he “plays” a dapper, savvy businessman who offers inexpensive Gallo wine at his $50-a-plate Manhattan restaurant.

Off screen, Francesco Giambelli is a dapper, savvy businessman about to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the restaurant which bears his name. He is described as a teacher, an innovator, an economist and a “papa” to his staff.

At 46 East 50th Street, the second of two Giambelli restaurants has an ideal location. Across the street is the Helmsley Palace Hotel. Down the block on Park Avenue is the Waldorf-Astoria. The headquarters for I.T.T. is a stone’s throw from the restaurant’s front door. But Giambelli is quick to note that location alone does not make or break a restaurant.

“For better or worse,” he says, surveying the 150-seat restaurant, ”this place is a result of the work I have put into it over the years.”

Those years have been long and the work continuous for the 69-year-old restaurateur, who started with a small hotel between Genoa and Milan. In his mid-3o’s, he left Italy, traveled around Europe and in 1956 carne to the United States to open the first Giambelli’s with his brother Alberto. The brothers split up and sold the restaurant, which retains the family name to this day. Francesco opened the 50th Street location and Aberto opened, and later sold, a restaurant called Brussels.

Just three years after its opening, Giambelli’s on 50th was featured in the New York Herald Tribnne as the favorite restaurant of Lucca Buccellati, whose family owns the internationally acclaimed Buccellati silver and jewelry business.

Then, as now, Giambelli’s was profiled for its innovation. Buccellati posed for a photo with a Giambelli creation called a “Kiss,” a drink of anisette with a touch of creme-de-menthe and a coffee bean.

Times have changed, but Giambelli’s has not. Today customers ask to take gondoletti–small pasta creations shaped like boats and filled with spinach and ricotta-back to California for dinner after a long flight home.

As was the case when the restaurant first opened, Giambelli frequently travels to find new foods. Two weeks ago on hbis latest trip to Milan, he brought back 21 kilos of the coveted white Italian mushroom for his restaurant guests, waiting in endless lines at the agricultural! department to do so.

Those who work at the restaurant regard Giambelli with a reverence reserved for a father.

“He is a teacher,” says waiter Jean Ane, “and he keeps on teaching us.”

Ane, like many others–managers Virgilio Gatti and Johnny Camia and kitchen staff Raimondo and Luigi Bernie–have been with Giambelli’s since the restaurant opened 25 years ago. The owner recently acknowledged their contributions when he posed with the entire staff for a full page, anniversary advertisement in The New York Times.

Whlle many of the employees have helped to make Giambelli’s the success it is today, others have left to open their own restaurants.  One of the most noted is Adi Giovanetti, whose Li Nido and Li Monello restaurants are known as two of Manhattan’s greatest Italian dining spots.

“He was my teacher from 1960 to 1974,” says Giovanetti. “He made a success out of me and taught me 7596 of what I know.”

Giovanetti describes the days he waited on tables at Giambelli as a time when there were fewer than five northern Italian restaurants in Manhattan.

Francesco and. Mary Giambelli are honored to announce that Giambelli’ s 50th Ristorante has been selected to serve HIS HOLINESS, POPE JOHN PAUL Il and the Papal Party on Saturday, October 7.
Giambelli’ s 50th Ristorante will be closed. on Saturday, October 7. We look forward to seeing our valued. costumers when we resume regular business hours on Sunday, October 8th at 12 noon.
We feel blessed to have this exquisite opportunity and we thank our guests for their friendship and. understanding.

Mr. and Mrs. Francesco Giambelli

There is a saying “Love doesn’t sit there like a stone, it has to be made, like bread: remade all the time, made new.” Tonight’s honorees, Francesco and Mary Giambelli, have leamed a great deal from their experience as successful restaurateurs, from preparing food and serving for others, and from making people feel at home. In their lives, over and over again, the Giambellis have shown the lesson oflove and caring for

other􀀆,. most recently as demonstrated 􀀸)’ 􀀊􀀋ir extraor􀀺inary generosity to St. Vincent’s Hospital Manhattan.

Francesco Giambelli was bom in 1915 in Voghera, outside Milan, ltaly. Across the ocean in America, in Brooklyn, New York, Mary Anzalone was bom one year later. Francesco started working at restaurants at the age of ten and worked in various hotels in bis hometown as a waiter until he was 17. He then went to Milan to the famed Savini’ s Ristorante where he worked in various restaurants in the cities of Rome and Siena. Mary meanwhile pursued her education in the New York City school system. She would go on to become a secretary, and eventually an associate designer in the women’s wear field in NewYork.

In 1937, Francesco went to Leipzig, Germany to work in restaurant industry. With little formal education, he soon learned to speak German. Through other jobs in Monte Carla, France and England, he learned to speak French and English as well. In 1949, with all of the experience he had acquired by working in various restaurants in different countries, Francesco retumed to bis hometown of Voghera and opened bis own restaurant. It quickly grew into a successful operation, and in 1954 he sold it to immigrate to America, and come to New York.

Francesco and Mary met one year later, marking the beginning of a remarkable personal and professional partnership that lasts to this day. In 1956, Francesco opened Giambelli’s Ristorante on Madison Avenue and 3?1h Street in New York. In 1960, Francesco sold that location, and opened Giambelli’s 50th Ristorante at it present location in midtown Manhattan, close by St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

Over the years, Giambelli ‘s 50th has served many distinguished personalities, including presidants of the United States and other cQuntries. It clientele has included kings, queens and other royalty, theatrical and motion picture celebrities, politicians and business executives. While ali have long enjoyed the exquisite cuisine and fine wines served by the Giambellis, the secret to their success appears to lie in the incredibly warm and welcoming atmosphere they extend to each and every visitor who comes in. As those who have had the good fortune to experience it can attest, this comes from no other motive than a sincere and genuine concem for others.

One ofthe highlights for the Giambellis carne during Pope John Paul II’s historie trip to New York in October 1995. They generously hosted and had the privilege of serving the