Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Valentino Cucina Italiana plans to reopen
Despite rumors, Fort Lauderdale restaurant ‘isn’t going anywhere’
The rumor mill started churning last week, mere hours after Broward County restaurants reopened at 50 percent capacity: Is Fort Lauderdale’s Valentino Cucina Italiana closed or closed for good?
“Yeah, I heard the rumors too, but Valentino isn’t going anywhere,” managing partner Robert DiStefano says. “We have to plan our reopening right, versus opening the doors fast.”
Closed since March 17, the sophisticated Italian restaurant remains on hiatus, and the days of Sunday dinners, lasagna and topflight wines are still weeks – if not months – away. DiStefano says the restaurant is taking a cautious approach to re-opening, unable to justify rehiring furloughed employees to tend to a half-full dining room.
One Door East, the loud-andproud small-plates eatery next door to Valentino Cucina, will stay closed for the same reason, he says.
What’s worse, he says that nearly all furloughed employees at both restaurants still haven’t received their first unemployment checks two months after filing, while Valentino Cucina awaits a federal Payroll Protection Program loan that would help put workers back on payroll.
“We know some might make the argument, ‘Why didn’t you spend the shutdown planning to
re-open?’ and the truth is, nobody knew whether Broward would re-open at 25, 50, 75 percent,” DiStefano says. “We’ve got to ensure customers coming back can trust us.”
For now DiStefano, minority partner/auto dealer Mike Maroone and Valentino Cucina’s lead chef Joel Ehrlich and aren’t “comfortable” re-opening without full capacity “but full capacity isn’t happening anytime soon,” he says.
One Door East and Valentino Cucina lack space for patio seating, considered prime real estate these days. Meanwhile, DiStefano expects the upcoming summer slump may delay Valentino Cucina’s return until snowbirds fly down this fall. “It’s a difficult balancing act for us, I must admit,” he adds.
The COVID-19 shutdown caught Valentino Cucina Italiana at the end of a transitional period, during which Ehrlich replaced founding chef-partner Giovanni Rocchio. Citing burnout and fatigue after 13 years of hand-making pasta and working the line every night, Rocchio abruptly called it quits last October, elevating One Door East’s Ehrlich to the top post. The restaurant debuted Sunday supper earlier this year, along with an upgraded menu that balanced Rocchio’s signature classics (agnolotti carbonara, veal chop) with Ehrlich’s new concepts.