Angie Rito Transcript
Kerry Diamond:
Hi, everyone. You are listening to Radio Cherry Bombe and I'm your host, Kerry Diamond. I'm the founder and editor of Cherry Bombe magazine. We're back with another sizzling episode of our Sexy Italian Summer miniseries. Today and over the next few Wednesdays, we're celebrating all things Italy, la dolce vita, cucina Italiana, and the incredible women who bring it all to life.
Today's guest is Angie Rito, the co-chef and co-owner of Don Angie and San Sabino, two of New York City's most popular Italian-American restaurants. Angie and her husband Scott have taken classic Italian dishes and given them a bold, modern update: dishes like their now-famous rolled lasagna and chrysanthemum salad. Angie is also co-author of the cookbook, “Italian American: Red Sauce Classics and New Essentials,” and she's helping define what Italian-American cooking is all about today: joyful, generous, and full of flavor. Angie and I talk about what she's eating and drinking this summer, what she always keeps stocked in her fridge to eat like an Italian and like a chef, and what it was like when San Sabino was featured in Sarah Jessica Parker's “And Just Like That” this season. Stay tuned for my chat with Angie Rito.
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Today's show is also presented by Square. We know so many of you are out there making culinary magic happen, running restaurants, bars, bakeries, and coffee shops. You're juggling staffing and sourcing while dreaming big. New locations, must-have menu items, and more customers. We see your hustle, and so does Square, the point of sale technology that helps you manage everything all from one place, from payments to staff, customers, and insights. A little bit about Square. 15 years ago, not all businesses could accept credit cards, hard to believe, but true. Square set out to change that, inventing the first mobile card reader of its kind. This allowed businesses to take payments anywhere and keep thriving. Square's tools unlocked countless opportunities for small businesses. Today, Square is helping more than 7 million businesses save time and be more efficient. Their tools are like having a tech-savvy sous chef for your business, one that helps automate emails and text the customers, run sales reports, and create loyalty programs. Just in time for summer dining, Square has a new lightweight point of sale device that literally fits in your pocket called Square Handheld that lets you take tableside orders, process payments, and manage inventory. When your restaurant is on your mind, which is probably all the time, think big and stress less with Square. Go to square.com/big to see how Square can help you. The link is in our show notes.
Now let's check in with today's guest. Angie Rito, welcome back to Radio Cherry Bombe.
Angie Rito:
Thanks so much for having me.
Kerry Diamond:
All right, the big question, Angie, are you having a Sexy Italian Summer?
Angie Rito:
Always, even when it's not summer. That is my vibe.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay, I love that Sexy Italian Summer is your vibe 365 days a year. Tell me, why is everybody so obsessed with Italy?
Angie Rito:
Clearly, I'm biased. I am obsessed with Italy for a number of reasons, but I think to me it's one of the most, if not the most beautiful place in the world in terms of the scenery and then it's just, I think just so culturally rich with the architecture and the art and the music and clearly the food and even the people. I don't know, you go to Naples and just how the people interact with each other and they're moving their hands. It's just such a unique and wonderful place and there's something about that kind like la dolce vita lifestyle. It's just this kind of carefree, beautiful lifestyle, just immersed in this beautiful setting and I think who doesn't want to aspire to that? It's great.
Kerry Diamond:
Agreed. How does one have a Sexy Italian Summer if you can't go to Italy?
Angie Rito:
One of my favorite things to do in Italy is go to aperitivo. I feel like you can easily recreate that sort of situation at home or just anywhere really, just a whole bunch of snacks and some sort of, it doesn't have to be the bright red Aperol Spritz vibe beverage. I mean, it's great if it is, but just any sort of fizzy, fresh beverage. I feel like you have that, you have some Italian snacks, it doesn't really matter where you are. I just feel like that in itself is a vibe.
Kerry Diamond:
I love a spritzy drink and some Italian snacks. I mean, you can't go wrong with that. Let's say it's just you and Scott. Do you guys have a backyard?
Angie Rito:
We don't. We have kind of a little rooftop on our apartment that we hang out on and we live in Dumbo, Brooklyn, so we kind of overlook the water. That's another thing too, if you're fortunate enough to be around water or even just a pool or whatever, I feel like that contributes to that kind of feeling.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay, so you and Scott are on your rooftop. What are you eating and drinking as you recreate Sexy Italian Summer?
Angie Rito:
I mean, I always try to have on hand just a whole bunch of different fruit. Whether it's whatever, grapes, strawberries, and figs, if you can get them, whatever, different cheeses, different salumi, different crispy crunchy things, crackers and chips, olives, marinated vegetables. I always have just all that stuff in our fridge and you could just any moment whip out a whole board of snacks. And anytime we entertain or have people over, that's the move is we'll just make big trays of just a bunch of different little finger foods.
Kerry Diamond:
I'm fascinated by the fact that you have a full fridge because for some reason, I have an image of chefs coming home and they barely have anything in their fridge.
Angie Rito:
Yes, no, you're absolutely right. So until my husband and I had our son, our refrigerator was just condiments, literally 20 different hot sauces, whatever, some packets from take-out or whatever. It was pretty sad, but since we've had our son, we've gotten into the groove of just having groceries around because we have this person at home who eats a lot and yeah, I think it also just evolved to us having some grown up snacks as well as the kid's snacks because we're like, "Oh, we kind of like this snack lifestyle." Now we're stocked with snacks at all times.
Kerry Diamond:
It's an aperitivo hour 24/7. Walk me through some pantry stuff versus some stuff that you would keep in the fridge. You already mentioned fruit. Why are you a big fruit fan/eater?
Angie Rito:
To be honest, it started off with just having it around for my son all the time because it's healthy, but I feel like when you put together a platter like this, there should be some varied textures and flavors and just having some fruit adds some freshness, and especially when it's hot outside, it's kind of hydrating, I don't know, having some fresh fruit. And then it's a nice juxtaposition to salty olives or potato chips or whatever. I think when you put together a platter like that, it's good to have a dynamic mix of all different textures and flavors.
Kerry Diamond:
I was just in Portland, Oregon. We did a big event out there like the one that we did together up in Wildflower Farms in Hudson. We were in Oregon wine country, Willamette Valley, and on the way back the team ran to the farmer's market in Portland and I picked up literally as much fruit as I could carry in my carry-on. I grabbed all the cherries because obviously they have spectacular cherries.
Angie Rito:
Oh, my god.
Kerry Diamond:
These beautiful little strawberries. They weren't that frais de bois, but they were tiny like that and so sweet, and Angie, the most beautiful figs. I feel like they're hard to find in New York sometimes.
Angie Rito:
Yeah, it's weird. I just got them recently, that's why I mentioned, I mean they're not usually in season right now. As I said it, I was like, "Well, I guess that's a summer fruit," but I don't know. I got some really great ones a week or two ago.
Kerry Diamond:
Cherry season came early in New York. Did you notice?
Angie Rito:
It did and it was just the best cherry season ever. I'm kind of having a sexy cherry summer right now.
Kerry Diamond:
That's next year's mini-series, Sexy Cherry Summer. Yeah. I've still got two bags full of cherries from Portland and I'm trying to make them last. But these figs, they were really big. They were that beautiful bright green color on the outside, and the inside was that rosy mauve color and they were so good.
Angie Rito:
Oh man, I love it. I love a fig.
Kerry Diamond:
Wrap it with a little prosciutto. Top anything with a fig goes a long way. Okay, so you've got fruit on hand. What are some things that you always have in the pantry? You can buy them, leave them in there and grab them when you need them.
Angie Rito:
I always get a bunch of different types of crackers. I often get tiralli, which are these little Italian kind of bagel thing I guess. Usually it's flavored with fennel seed and black peppercorn. My grandfather used to make them, so that's a good one. Even with the crackers, I try to have varied shapes and textures and stuff, so I can't remember the brand, but I'll get these kind long flatbread-style crackers. Sometimes I'll get the, what do they call it? They're like grissini but cheese ones, I don't know. I feel like a mix of that is really visually appealing, but also obviously the different textures and flavors are really delicious and fun to eat.
Kerry Diamond:
Any tinned fish?
Angie Rito:
My husband is more of a tinned fish guy. Honestly, we haven't had that around admittedly for a while because I feel like when we're entertaining, I feel like, I don't know, it gets a little more of a polarizing thing. Not everyone loves it. I try to stick more to the crowd-pleasing things, but I love pickled mussels in a tin or my husband loves sardines, loves them.
Kerry Diamond:
I'm pro-tinned fish big time.
Angie Rito:
Yeah, I should bring them back. You're right. I should just force people to eat it.
Kerry Diamond:
We'll be right back with today's guest. If you love all things Italy, you're going to love the next issue of Cherry Bombe's print magazine. Every single page is inspired by Italy. Our covers, all the features, recipes, and photos. Flipping through the issue is taking a virtual visit. We have features on lots of Cherry Bombe faves from Nancy Silverton to Hailee Catalano, Mimi Thorisson, and Tamu McPherson. Visit Cherrybombe.com to subscribe or buy a single issue or pick up an issue at your favorite bookstore or culinary shop this September.
Also, our next Jubilee conference is taking place in Los Angeles on Sunday, September 28th. If you're new to Jubilee, it's our conference that's all about connection, community, and celebrating the creatives who make the world of food and drinks so vibrant. We're thrilled to be heading to L.A. and to give the city the love it deserves. If you're a Bombesquad member, be sure to use the ticket link in your inbox for special pricing. Not a member? You can still join and receive the private link.
Last thing, our next Bombesquad member meeting is taking place Tuesday, August 26th, on Zoom. It's one of our book club meetings and our guest is none other than Kristin Kish, the host of “Top Chef.” We'll be talking with Kristin about her memoir, “Accidentally on Purpose.” You can read Kristin's book, or you can do what I did and listen to it. Kristin is the narrator and does a great job. If you're a member, check your inbox for details. Not a member? There is still time to join. All of these links are on cherrybombe.com and in our show notes.
Walk me through cheese. What's some fun stuff to have?
Angie Rito:
Different textures and stuff, so always a spreadable one. The classic, I'm probably going to say it wrong, Boursin, whatever.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, yeah.
Angie Rito:
I feel like it's kind of cool because it's interactive too, to have something spreadable. If someone wants to, they can get in there and spread on their cracker or if they're being lazy, they don't want to do any work. They could just grab the cube of cheese or whatever, but it adds to the experience, it's like something to do. So always something like spreadable, you can make your own kind of thing like that, which we've done in the past. We've taken fresh robiola cheese and then mixed it with kind of confit garlic and shallot and fresh herbs, but again, you don't have to do all the work. You could just buy the Boursin. A mix of hard cheeses. I love a classic pecorino. I love pecorino pepato. It's this sheep's cheese that's studded with black peppercorns that's from Sicily that my grandfather was obsessed with. That's a cool one. It's really pretty too. I know it's not Italian at all, but I love a really good Gouda. I don't know what it is about it, but yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
Any Parm?
Angie Rito:
Yeah, definitely some Parm. We'll take fresh mozzarella too and marinate that. The little teeny, what are they called? There's like the Perlini ones or the chiliagon ones, and we'll just marinate those with olive oil and chili flake and oregano. Again, it looks beautiful, but it also just adds a little extra something to it.
Kerry Diamond:
How long do you have to marinate that for?
Angie Rito:
I don't know, an hour minimum or something, but then whatever you can do with the night before and just have it ready to go.
Kerry Diamond:
That's a great tip because you can do that so easily and so quickly.
Angie Rito:
Oh, totally, and same with marinated vegetables. I feel like it's really easy to buy stuff and kind of like zhuzh it up. You can buy marinated artichokes and then add fresh mint and some grated garlic and lemon juice and some Parmesan, and it's a totally different, elevated, but it kind of cuts out some of the work. This is also pertaining to home situations. In the restaurants, we make everything from scratch and do a whole bunch of stuff, but I think when it comes to entertaining at home, it's just nice sometimes to make things a little easier on yourself.
Kerry Diamond:
And especially when it's so hot, that's such a nice way to eat that just kind of grazing situation.
Angie Rito:
For sure.
Kerry Diamond:
And if you have some fruit and some fresh veg on it, you'll feel better about the meal.
Angie Rito:
Yeah, for sure.
Kerry Diamond:
We're going to talk about some of the restaurant dishes in a little bit, but I want to talk about your cookbook, “Italian American.” Is there anything easy and fun that's a good thing to make for the summer from your cookbook?
Angie Rito:
There's a cool marinated olive recipe in there that's kind of similar to what we've been talking about. You kind of take some olives. Basically you infuse oil with smoked paprika, pimento, and garlic, and add in orange peel and chili flake. I mean, it just really elevates just regular or old olives. Another one that I love is my grandma's roasted peppers. We have the recipe in the book for the whole thing. You take the peppers and you roast them and yada yada. I guess if you didn't want to do all that, you could just do the last half of the recipe, which is marinating them. You can buy pre-roasted peppers and marinate them, but that's hands down one of my favorite snacks in the world. I love roasted peppers.
Kerry Diamond:
How do you roast them? I love to roast a vegetable, but I don't think I've roasted peppers in the oven. I usually do the old school thing. I'll just put them on some kind of utensil and just torch them literally right over my burner.
Angie Rito:
Oh my God, yeah, a hundred percent. Or you can cut them open and lay them out skin side up and put them under a broiler to really char that skin really fast. But yeah, my grandma used to totally just like, I guess they're not really roasted, right? They're like, yeah, charred. Just put them on top of the burner on the stove and just let it rip or whatever.
Kerry Diamond:
Throw it in the paper bag. All those things. I don't know. I think I learned that growing up on Staten Island, how to do that. Some of the useful things I learned growing up on Staten Island. It's so messy though when you do it that way over the burner and then you throw it in the paper bag and then you have to scrape the burned bits off and then the inside is so steamy.
Angie Rito:
Yeah, I guess it is.
Kerry Diamond:
It's a process, but it's worth it.
Angie Rito:
I think it's so worth it.
Kerry Diamond:
Let's talk about Italy. You have visited Italy. How many times have you been there?
Angie Rito:
I don't even know. Oh, my God.
Kerry Diamond:
So many times you can't count?
Angie Rito:
Yeah. My husband and I have been there together at least once a year for, I don't know. We've been together for almost 20 years and we've always gone there at least once a year and yeah, I studied there in college for a summer.
Kerry Diamond:
Which part did you study in?
Angie Rito:
Florence.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, how dreamy. Oh my gosh. But wait, you and Scott have been together for 20 years?
Angie Rito:
I guess I'm rounding up. We've been together 18 years.
Kerry Diamond:
Good for you guys.
Angie Rito:
Yeah, and we got married in Florence too.
Kerry Diamond:
You guys must've been babies.
Angie Rito:
I mean, well, we were together for seven years or something before we got married, so yeah, whenever that was.
Kerry Diamond:
All right, so we've established you've been to Italy a lot. Favorite places in Italy? I mean, that might be impossible to pick.
Angie Rito:
Yeah, it's so hard because, oh god, Italy is so cool, just so diverse. Every region is so different, even just the landscape, the food, just everything about it. But my husband and I both, we really love Sicily. We've had some really amazing times just renting a car and just driving across Sicily, sometimes not even with a plan in mind. Maybe we have kind of an end goal, we are going to end up in Catania or whatever and just stopping in towns along the way. I think those have been some of my favorite Italian experiences. I love Naples. I don't know what it is about that city, but just the culture and the people. There's just, I don't know, something about it. It's just very unique. It's like a very soulful culture there. I don't know how to explain it.
Kerry Diamond:
Do you speak Italian?
Angie Rito:
I do not, not well. I used to speak it much better and I feel like over the years it's kind of diminished and I also speak more Spanish now, so I kind of get mixed together. I don't know, I would love to at one point just re-immerse myself in Italy and spend a straight month there or something just to get that back, but maybe one day.
Kerry Diamond:
Is there anywhere on your Italy bucket list, anywhere you haven't been that you're dying to go?
Angie Rito:
We really want to go to the island, the Aeolian Islands. It's more just kind of natural beauty. It's pretty uninhabited and whatnot, but I don't know, the idea of taking a boat from the north of Sicily and just cruising around all those little islands and seeing the volcanoes and stuff, I just think that'd be a really cool perspective on Italy that I've never seen.
Kerry Diamond:
That sounds beautiful.
Angie Rito:
Yeah, just the idea of being on a boat over there, just like that idea sounds great.
Kerry Diamond:
Sounds like that Dolce & Gabbana perfume ad, have you seen that?
Angie Rito:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
The hot guy on the boat and I'm like, "That's the best ad ever." Who doesn't want to be on that boat?
Angie Rito:
A hundred percent.
Kerry Diamond:
When you go to Italy, have you done the chefy foodie things or do you kind of avoid those things?
Angie Rito:
We used to kind not seek out, but we have gone to Michelin-starred restaurants and had these kind of fine dining type experiences in Italy, and to be honest, my preference is just trattoria. The person cooking the food has to be a minimum of 70 years old. Legit, just nonas. I don't know. For me, that's what I seek out when I go, that's the real authentic experience and the food that really speaks to me personally. I've had some cool fine dining experiences, but yeah, if I'm in Italy, I want that type of food. I want grandmas cooking for me.
Kerry Diamond:
Do you remember a few best bites that you've had over there?
Angie Rito:
Oh, my God. I mean, we went to this restaurant in Sicily the one time that it was funny in Catania. The reason we chose it, we were so intrigued by the reviews online, they were very just polarizing. Some people were just like, "This is the best meal in my life," and then some people were like, "Oh my god, it took forever because this old lady just was literally making everything and it took five hours to dine," or whatever. So we were like, "This place sounds perfect."
So we went and it was so funny. We walk in and we saw the chef or whatever just sitting there. We sat down, we ordered our food. It took her another 20 minutes to even just get up and slowly walk toward the kitchen, and then we heard her pounding our veal or whatever. It was hilarious, but we knew what we were in for. Our friends and we were just kind of like, "All right, we're going to be here for a while, but this is going to be great." I swear to God, she must have hand-rolled each noodle in our pasta plate right then and there, or it seemed that way, but it was, oh my God, it was such a memorable meal. We had this hand-rolled macaroni with, it was alla Norma with eggplant and tomatoes, classic Eastern Sicilian dish. Phenomenal. These zeppole that were just really kind of just straightforward pate a choux with granulated sugar, but it was just the most delicious thing I've ever had in my life.
Kerry Diamond:
Any vacation time for you and Scott this summer?
Angie Rito:
We've been taking a lot of long weekends and going to visit Scott's family in New Jersey or Scott's brother has a house on the Jersey shore, so we've gone there. We went to see our friends in Florida for a weekend. I don't know, just long weekends here and there. We've actually had a pretty busy summer in terms of work.
Kerry Diamond:
And then you've got a big trip coming up not quite this summer.
Angie Rito:
We're going to the Wine and Food Festival in Hawaii in October, and I've never been to Hawaii, so I'm really excited about that and we're bringing our son who's four. He's excited, although I'm trying to explain to him. He keeps being like, "Are we going to see volcanoes and lava? I don't want to go by the lava." I'm like, "There's no lava," but he's excited.
Kerry Diamond:
Little kids are so cute. That's a long flight with a little one. Are you ready?
Angie Rito:
I don't know if I'm ready, per se, but I'm going to do it and I'm going to try my best to bring a lot of distractions. A lot of snacks. Again, the snacks cure everything. Yeah, we'll see how it goes.
Kerry Diamond:
Have a great time in Hawaii. I've only been to Kauai and absolutely loved it. The people are really wonderful and it's one of the most beautiful spots on the planet, so I'm sure you're going to have a great time. Let's talk about your restaurants. I just saw the finale of “And Just Like That,” the Sarah Jessica “Sex and the City” spinoff, and the final scene in the last episode was at San Sabino.
Angie Rito:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
How'd that come to be?
Angie Rito:
I don't know how it came to be that they approached us and we were really thrilled about that to be chosen. I mean, they've featured a lot of cool restaurants in this season. It was really an interesting experience. I've never seen production quite like that. They intentionally wet the sidewalk and they brought in all these props. I couldn't believe it. They brought in their own table lamps and curtains, things that we already have, but they changed all of it to make it look like they want it to look. It was really impressive how they do it all. Every single person in the room's an actor, the servers, it's like just 50 people rolling in there to just film this three minute scene or whatever, but not even three minutes. Yeah, it was cool.
Kerry Diamond:
I don't know the technical terms for these things, but it looked like they had a big crane outside that pulled back?
Angie Rito:
Hundred percent. Yeah. Oh, my God. And big lights, and there were all these people crowding on the streets kind of seeing what was going on, and it was a really cool experience. Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
Where did you and Scott get to watch it from?
Angie Rito:
Where were we?
Kerry Diamond:
You weren't in the kitchen, were you?
Angie Rito:
Oh, watched the filming?
Kerry Diamond:
The filming.
Angie Rito:
Yeah. We were on site. We kind of just popped our head out. The restaurant's very small, so we kind of just popped our head out of the kitchen and saw the filming, so it was cool.
Kerry Diamond:
Did you try to get a cameo? Were you like, "Can I bring the food out to the table?"
Angie Rito:
Yeah, I did not. What's weird is we made all this food and I don't even think you can see a speck of food in the final cut.
Kerry Diamond:
I was very excited when I saw that it was San Sabino when she walks around the corner in the dress, a very pretty dress. Because the ending's a little dramatic.
Angie Rito:
Oh, yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
I don't know. I don't think you watch the full season.
Angie Rito:
I didn't watch. No, but I've seen the clip and yeah, you see her run across Jane Street and open the door. My favorite design features of the restaurant is our handle on the door has an S. and on the other side it's another S. So then when you see them at certain angles, you see SS, which is pretty cool.
Kerry Diamond:
What else is going on at the restaurants? The menus at both your places, San Sabino and Don Angie, it's one sexy thing after another, and if you only go with two people, it's painful because you can only order a certain amount of food. But what are you so excited about on the menu right now?
Angie Rito:
This week we're putting on a new, it's something we've done in the past, but it's one of our favorites, A fresh melon sorbeto with little melon balls and a white Lambrusco granita with pink peppercorn, I think really pairs really well with melon. It's kind of like floral and just very summery, just perfect.
Kerry Diamond:
Is that a starter or a dessert?
Angie Rito:
It's a dessert, like a sorbet.
Kerry Diamond:
With you two, you never know. You play with ingredients in such an intriguing way.
Angie Rito:
Yeah, oh, totally. We actually have a really fun starter at Don Angie right now that's a riff on a Hawaiian pizza, the flavor profile of Hawaiian pizza. It's a pineapple salad with candied hazelnuts and this smoky coppa from Brooklyn Cured. They're in Brooklyn and they make various salumi, but it's cool. It's cured with tasso spice, so it's kind of got this Cajun vibe to it. Yeah, that's like a cool starter with Thai basil and feta. At San Sabino, we just put on this new crudo with yellowtail kingfish and roasted Jimmy Nardello peppers. I think I brought this up last time I talked to you, but I just love, as I mentioned before, roasted peppers. They remind me of my grandma, so we roast them and marinate them kind of along the lines of how my grandma used to season her peppers, so I think that's why I love that.
Kerry Diamond:
You chefs love your Jimmy Nardello peppers.
Angie Rito:
Yeah, we do. I just like the name of it.
Kerry Diamond:
Is there some Jimmy Nardello Pepper Association that's paying all your chefs to put these on your menu?
Angie Rito:
There might be. I don't know.
Kerry Diamond:
No? No, they're very good. If you see them in the farmer's market, pick them. They're yummy and sweet.
Angie Rito:
Yeah, I think that's what's cool about them is they have a really intense pepper flavor, but they're not super spicy, so they're very versatile.
Kerry Diamond:
But the two restaurants are doing good?
Angie Rito:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
Any tips on how to get a reservation these days?
Angie Rito:
They're both really tiny. San Sabino is like 45 seats. Don Angie is like 55 seats, so we always get people saying, "There's no reservations." Honestly, they go live seven days in advance at 9:00 A.M.
Kerry Diamond:
Only seven days in advance?
Angie Rito:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, I wouldn't know that.
Angie Rito:
So people will sign on right at 9:00 A.M., just kind of keep clicking, and unfortunately, the restaurants are so small, they do go very fast. But we do save room for walk-ins at both restaurants at the bar, as well as right now we have outdoor seating at both restaurants, so I think there's even more opportunity to fill seats just because we have more seats available now. But a lot of people will come right at 4:00 P.M. right before we open, and they'll wait in line essentially.
Kerry Diamond:
And both places are on OpenTable?
Angie Rito:
Yes. Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
So you can make your res on OpenTable. I want to talk about your family bakery in Cleveland, Rito's Bakery. It was open for 60 years, founded by your beloved grandfather, and it closed this year. 60 years is a long time. I'm just wondering, how are you feeling?
Angie Rito:
Yeah, it honestly hasn't sunk in. I think I need to go back to Cleveland and walk in. I don't know how to explain it. I mean, I know this happened, but I still, I don't know, I just really haven't wrapped my head around it. But it's bittersweet. I'm just happy for my father and his siblings. They've worked there for 50 years or their whole lives, and it's not an easy job. My dad's worked six days a week since forever and doing really hard work on his feet, and I'm really happy for my dad to finally relax and retire. That's the one silver lining for me. It's always hard to get my dad to do stuff. "Come visit me, do whatever." He's always like, "Ah, I got to work." But now it's like, "No, you don't."
Kerry Diamond:
So we'll see dad kicking it back at the bar at Don Angie?
Angie Rito:
Yeah, hopefully.
Kerry Diamond:
Dad, come to New York. Have your Sexy Italian Summer.
Angie Rito:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
Come sit at the bar.
Angie Rito:
Jim's Sexy Italian Summer. Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
But you worked at Rito's when you were younger and it was sort of your first introduction to this world.
Angie Rito:
I've been immersed in the food industry my whole life. Even before I worked at the bakery, just every family gathering, everyone would be like, "Oh, how many hard rolls we sell today?" This is the topic of discussion. So it was just very much a part of my whole life. I think I started working there when I was 12 or 13. I'll never forget, I was sitting watching TV and my dad, he's like, "Hey," and I turned around and he just threw a Rito's Bakery polo shirt at me and I caught it. He's like, "Put that on," and he's like, "Get in the car," and he just took me there. I was like, "All right, I guess this is what I'm doing," or whatever.
But yeah, very much a big part of my life and it was always so special to me, and it just always felt so natural to me to be in that setting. And I worked in the front quite a bit actually selling the pastries to the customers or whatever, and I used to love if someone came in a bad mood, I'd love to play a little game where I try to make them smile before they left. Just like that hospitality part of it was always something that I loved because who's going to be sad walking out with a donut or whatever? Yeah, it was great.
Kerry Diamond:
I love that your dad just sort of kidnapped you and put you to work. I love that story. Tell us what some of the greatest hits were at Rito's.
Angie Rito:
My grandfather was Sicilian, so cannoli was their big thing and took a lot of pride in the fact that they handmade all their shells, which truly isn't a common thing. A lot of bakeries, in fact, I want to say almost all of them, they just buy the shell because it's really hard to make. It's kind of not worth your while at some point. But my grandfather, they handmade all their shells and it was a really light, crispy, delicate, it was a really good cannoli shell. So that cassata cake, which interestingly enough, it was this Midwestern style of cassata cake that I didn't learn until I was older, was not true cassata cake. It was basically like this layered strawberry and custard with yellow sponge cake situation that they would call cassata, but then they also serve this one that had cannoli cream inside of it, and then rum soaked cake that they also called cassata. I don't know. It was interesting. Those were some of the specialties, a whole bunch of different Italian cookies like rainbow cookies, cannoli cookies.
Kerry Diamond:
The classics.
Angie Rito:
All that stuff. Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
Did you know your grandfather?
Angie Rito:
Yeah. Yeah. He actually just passed away, I want to say two years ago. So that was the impetus for closing the store, really, it was when he passed. But yeah, I was pretty close to all my grandparents growing up.
Kerry Diamond:
What did you learn from your grandfather that you put into practice at the restaurants today?
Angie Rito:
I think we honestly just share a lot of personality traits. Maybe that's genetic or whatever. He was a very strong-willed person. I mean, I guess it's corny, but to kind of follow your dreams kind of thing. He would always tell me about how when he moved to America, all of his siblings and his cousins, everyone were bricklayers. That was where the money was at. That's where the opportunity was at. But he just was so passionate about baking and he wanted to pursue this path, and he just did it. So I think that sentiment or whatever, that idea of following your dreams is something that I learned from him.
Kerry Diamond:
Anything on the menu that's a tribute to Rito's or that you're thinking about maybe putting on the menu?
Angie Rito:
I mean, there's little hints of it everywhere, really. One thing that just pops to mind right now is we have a dessert at San Sabino that…it's kind of like a piña colada vibe. It's like a pineapple sorbeto with this almond granita, but the almond granita is a very Sicilian kind of thing. And then it has these broken piñole cookies on there, which I don't know, they remind me of my grandpa. It was something that my grandpa made at his store.
Kerry Diamond:
What was your grandfather's name?
Angie Rito:
Santo.
Kerry Diamond:
Angie, last question. If you could time travel to Italy right now, where would you go and what would you be eating?
Angie Rito:
I think some of the cool imagery of Italy that comes to mind is '60s and '70s on a beach on the Amalfi Coast or Capri. I don't know. I could see Sophia Loren under an umbrella or something. I don't know, that kind of vibe. Some seafood pasta, like a clam pasta, maybe a seafood salad, something like that. Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay. '60s, '70s vibe. I could see you with your eyeliner and your dresses and your seafood and all that. That would be great. All right, Angie, you're the bomb. Thank you so much.
Angie Rito:
Thank you so much for having me. This was a lot of fun.
Kerry Diamond:
That's it for today's show. If you missed last week's Sexy Italian Summer with J.J. Martin of La DoubleJ, be sure to give a listen. And I would love for you to follow Radio Cherry Bombe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube, wherever you listen, and leave a rating and a review. If you're already a follower, thank you. Check out the links in our show notes for our magazine, Jubilee tickets, and Cherry Bombe membership info. Our theme song is by the band Tralala. Special thanks to Good Studio in Brooklyn and The Studio Portland in Maine. Our producers are Catherine Baker and Jenna Sadhu, and our talent guru is Londo=yn Crenshaw. Thanks for listening, everybody. Ciao, Bella.