The father and son duo of Pasquino and Michael Vitiello, two of the forces behind beloved Queen Marie Italian Restaurant in Brooklyn Heights, NY, are crossing the Hudson to open Ristorante MV in the historical small town of Bernardsville, NJ.
When asked about the move, Michael Vitiello said, “Opening a restaurant in New Jersey was always our five-year plan. The pandemic just hurried things up. 30% of our business was from the lunch crowd from the nearby courthouses that disappeared when the court cases went virtual, so we closed in April.”
Ristorante MV will make its home in a landmarked stone building built in 1849, that took its’ turn first as a horse stable, then as the Old Stone Hotel, then as various bars and most recently as Rudolph’s Steakhouse.
It’s impossible to talk about Ristorante MV without giving a proper nod to “the Queen” as the red sauce institution is referred to by fans. The Queen started as a Brooklyn, NY pizzeria in 1958. Founded by the late Anthony Vitiello, Pasquino’s father and Michael’s grandfather who migrated from Naples. Pasquino and his brother, Vincent, started working with their dad as kids, with Pasquino then going off to get a fine dining education at places like the Rainbow Room and Waldorf Astoria. Bringing his newfound culinary chops back to the Queen, Pasquino introduced quality changes which included trimming the 50-page menu to just the American Italian classics with a daily rotation of specials.
Those changes contributed to the Queens’s 62-year successful reign. It was not only a neighborhood hang but a place where industry folks liked to go as well. “Danny Meyer, the Ballatos from Emilio’s Ballato, all the Carbone guys, they would all come to us because they knew we were doing a lot of things people weren’t doing anymore,” said Michael. “Things like butchering our own veal legs, which is a dying art.”
Michael joined his uncle, dad and grandfather 13 years ago much to his dad’s chagrin. “My dad didn’t want any of us to get into the business, but I had it in my blood.” Now Michael is taking the baton and running with it.
Why Bernardsville? “My fiancée lives here,” Michael offered. And the space? “I was scouting locations with my future father-in-law and we stopped into Rudolph’s Steakhouse for lunch. He asked, ‘Would you consider buying this place?’ Obviously, he thinks on a different scale than me. This place was like a castle. It never crossed my mind. Besides it wasn’t even for sale.” Long story short: Over lunch and a very expensive bottle of wine, conversations with the owner ensued and the keys were in Michael’s hands by January.
Michael enlisted design firm Christian Árkay-Leliever to oversee renovations on the 10,000 sq. ft. multi-level building that will combine the buildings’ old-world ambiance with Art Deco glamour. “I want it to be as evocative as a Tuscan villa.”
The first level dining room features stone walls, a high ceiling, gloss black chandeliers, a 14-foot olive tree, accents of imported Italian green velvet chairs and a huge mural of the rolling hills of Tuscany. The duo and Árkay-Leliever utilized the sourcing skills of Marc Celli and his John Celli Furniture team to execute the furniture and accent vision of their design.
The bar area, off the dining room, will have high gloss cobalt blue walls with velvet inlays, a copper ceiling, white Carrara marble bar, cognac leather bar stools, and brass accents. Instead of Frank Sinatra tunes, often heard at the Queen, the music will be uptempo Italian pop. “We want to keep the energy high here,” offers Michael.
“The upstairs will be our Trattoria, serving more casual fare. Basically, between the upscale downstairs and more casual upstairs, we’ll be running two restaurants in one.”
“The food at Ristorante MV will be the same as it was at the Queen,” Michael says, “95% of our New York purveyors are joining us. We’ll still be getting our imported Italian specialties from Eurama Foods, our veal legs from Weichsel Beef Company, our seafood from Val’s Ocean Pacific. Everything is still being made in-house, our breads and pasta, the mozzarella we make twice a day. We’ve built a prosciutto aging room. Downstairs will be the classic Queen’s menu with a daily rotation of upscale specials.”
When asked about opening a new restaurant during the pandemic, Michael concluded: “My plan was always to open slowly and with the state mandating only 25% seating capacity, that allows me time to do just that.”
To learn more about Ristorante MV, visit their website or follow their Instagram.
