Articles by: Joelle Grosso

At the press preview of Manzo, some of the most influential Italians and Italian Americans came out to celebrate the new and improved restaurant that will reopen on March 31st after four weeks of being closed. According to Eataly’s website, Manzo will now be “a true butcher’s restaurant, complete with a redesigned menu celebrating all things meat, a different layout, and an edgy new cocktail menu with a focus on Vermouth.” 

The Marketing of Truth

Nicola Farinetti, the CEO of Eataly, spoke about all the changes that were made from the innovative menu itself to the gorgeous interior design. He comments, “it’s this beautiful curse for people that do our job, you have to always be new so we took this occasion to connect our restaurants even closer to our butcher.” Farinetti says meat is the main focus of the renovated location but more importantly, he wants his customers to have a better understanding of the quality of the food they eat and a deeper connection with the products they purchase. He is firm and determined when he tells i-Italy that the goal of his company is “to keep pursuing the marketing of the truth.” In other words, you get to see firsthand how meat travels from the butcher to the kitchen so there’s absolutely no question about what you are putting into your body at Manzo.

Special Guests Explain the Concept Behind Manzo

The Italian-born American celebrity chef and television host, Lidia Bastianich, was excited for the restoration. She said, “we’ve been here for six years and Manzo has been doing great as a restaurant but we actually needed more space so we enlarged it a little bit and we really accented the meat element which people love.” She hopes this renovation shows customers that Eataly is there for them and is always willing to make the changes they desire. 

Joe Bastianich, the son of Lidia who also happens to be a restaurateur, spoke about the connection between Manzo and Eataly. As with Eataly, there is a retail aspect at Manzo where you can buy high quality products and cook them at home or you can choose to eat the restaurant instead. At the new Manzo, Bastianich says there are, “new items, new cooking techniques, rotisserie, grill, more things in the open where people can see the food being prepared, it’s more accessible, interactive, and easy going.”

Popular Italian American chef, Mario Batali, talked about how Manzo transformed from a formal environment to something that’s more youthful and vibrant. The new specialities include Torino Vermouth cocktails, an entirely different menu placed at a lower price, and a giant showroom of meat where butchers show the public the specific cuts they can eat at Manzo. He added, “Eataly has always been about the interaction between the staff and the customer, the more intelligent our customers become, the better we all are because they demand more from us and give us more interaction and more juice to play with. We’re investing in our customers in a very different way.”

Manzo will officially open on March 31st in the heart of New York for those who want to experience this new way of smart dining. More information can be found at: >>>

As part of the ongoing series at the Italian Cultural Institute of New York entitled Managers: From Italy to Top Global Businesses, journalist and author Maria Teresa Cometto sat down with Claudio Del Vecchio, Italian businessman and leader of iconic American brand Brooks Brothers. Together they revealed why US Presidents—40 since 1918 to be exact—have historically chosen its coats for inaugurations, how manufacturing could be brought back to the US, and much more.

The Story of an Italian at the Helm of America’s Oldest Men’s Clothier

Claudio first learned about Brooks Brothers when he was just a young boy in Italy reading an article about Gianni Agnelli, the chairman of Fiat at the time. Agnelli was well respected for his stylish ensembles and frequently wore Brooke Brothers dress shirts. The fact that he opted for the US men’s retailer when he had access to all of the fashion in Italy sparked Claudio’s curiosity. Naturally, the first store Claudio visited when he came to the States at 25 was Brooks Brothers. Fast forward to 2001, he transformed from a loyal customer to CEO.

Of course, he achieved his success on his own accord, but his chosen industry is no surprise considering his father’s background. Leonardo Del Vecchio just happens to own the world’s largest eyewear company, Luxottica, based in Milan. In regards to his father, Claudio once said, “My father instilled a love for beautiful things and believed that quality is the best investment one can make. To go to work every day with passion and to share that passion is something he values greatly. He taught me to think long-term and not to be influenced by trends, which is important at a company like Brooks Brothers.”

Three Interesting Takeaways

Speaking of his father, the day before Claudio made his way to the Upper East Side for the evening’s discussion, Forbes World’s Billionaires list revealed that Leonardo moved up in the rankings. Claudio shared a text from his 14-year-old daughter to the crowd that read, “Nonno is the second richest person in Italy and the 50th in the world. That’s insane!” Can you imagine getting a text like that?! When it’s true that is...

Another shocking tidbit Claudio shared was that while Trump and Obama are nearly polar opposites politically, they have something in common when it comes to style. That’s right, President Trump wore the same type of Brooks Brothers coat to his Inauguration that Obama had at both of his. If this proves anything at all, it’s that they both know how to dress when the occasion calls it.

Going back even further in time to the tragic events of 9/11, the deadline for the auction to buy Brooks Brothers was just two days following. The offer had been sent to Morgan Stanley, but their offices were in the Twin Towers. Amidst the hardship and chaos of the country’s worst terrorist attack, all of the interested companies withdrew their offers. Claudio del Vecchio was the exception. He shared, “I knew that New York and America would overcome that terrible moment, and that Brooks Brothers could be relaunched as well.” And he achieved just that. Despite being on the verge of bankruptcy, he successfully turned the company around.

Food, Fashion, and Manufacturing

Though Brooks Brothers is grounded in tradition and avoids being influenced by short-fashion, it evolves with the times nonetheless. As the market continues to drastically change, which Claudio credits to online shopping, he is looking to revolutionize the store experience. How? By combining food and fashion—the Italian way. The strategy entails attracting customers into physical stores with the fusion of Italian recipes and equally irresistible apparel.

He is also looking to bring more manufacturing jobs into the US. He explained. “We can do manufacturing in the US and in Italy, too. What makes competitive manufacturing in China or other places is not cheap labor—in fact labor is not cheap there anymore—but technology. They have better machinery than most companies in so called ‘advanced countries.’ Companies who have invested in new equipment are doing well, both in the US and in Italy. The challenge here in the US is immigration. We don’t have enough workers trained to use the new technology, and if we don’t attract specialized workers from abroad and keep foreign students who have learned here the skills we need, that would be a big problem. The challenge in Italy is to be less arrogant: we Italians ‘know everything and are better,’ but we should listen more to other people.”

Finally: in January 2018 Brooks Brothers will celebrate the 200th anniversary of its establishment. Festivities will take place at the illustrious Pitti Uomo menswear event in Florence.

Get lost in the lustrous and meticulously rendered paintings and drawings of 17th-century Italian artist, Carlo Dolci, which are now on display for the first time ever in the States at the Davis Museum in Massachusetts. The artist was famous for his painstaking technique which resulted in highly sophisticated work that took ages to complete. The curator Eve Straussman-Pflanzer says “the exhibition will consider Dolci’s art in depth as well as consider art as a critical diplomatic, political, and cultural tool from the early modern period to the present.” 

The Painter of the Medici Family

The House of Medici was an extremely wealthy Italian banking family and political dynasty in Florence during the lifetime of Carlo Dolci but they are best known for their incredible sponsorship of art and architecture during the height of the Renaissance. The Medici family hired Dolci, a painter who concentrated mostly on religious figures as subjects in the typical Baroque style. His pieces are easily recognizable by their enamel-like finish, strong coloring, and subtle lighting, each one is considered to be a manifestation of prayer. However, this exhibition hopes to move beyond the notion of Dolci as an exclusively devotional painter and return to an appreciation of the aesthetic merits, naturalistic underpinnings, and cultural context of his incredible work. 

Inside the Exhibition

“The Medici’s Painter: Carlo Dolci and 17th-Century Florence” provides the first opportunity in the United States to study the life and oeuvre of the most important artist during the 1600s. The exhibition includes more than 50 paintings and drawings on loan from the most distinguished public collections in the world such as the Uffizi Gallery, Pitti Palace, Louvre Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Special pieces from private collections will also be on display that would have otherwise been inaccessible to the masses. Some of Dolci’s masterpieces that will be featured include The Adoration of the Shepherds, The Penitent Magdalene and The Virgin and Child.

For those who are interested in visiting this exhibition, “The Medici’s Painter: Carlo Dolci and 17th-Century Florence” will run through July 9th. Please visit https://www.wellesley.edu/davismuseum/ for more information.

The Community of Unity recently hosted their 15th Annual Song Celebration and Fundraiser where Marisa and Giovanni Colavita were awarded as the SONG Winners of the year. All the guests enjoyed a night filled with good music, good food, and good company all while supporting the dynamic programming that Community of Unity provides which empowers young people to find their unique purpose and potential. i-Italy had the special opportunity to speak with the founder of this special organization, Eric Komoroff, and one of the winners of the night, Marisa Colavita.

The History of Community of Unity

Eric Komoroff, Founder and Executive Director of Community of Unity, had been a New York educator since 1988 before starting his own nonprofit organization 17 years ago. He told i-Italy that he “always felt like too many young people don’t embrace the idea of having a unique potential, something that is special about them that they need to pursue in their lives that makes life worth living so we created this organization to hopefully awaken in them a sense that there is a future, that everyone has a song and we have to learn our song and then we have to share our song.”

Komoroff went on to explain the meaning behind the concept: "the song to us is that thing inside of you that you’re born with, that makes you, you. It’s your best self, it’s your potential, it’s your purpose, it’s your vibration, your essence and we all have it and a life is really about learning our song and then sharing our song."

The Community of Unity strongly believes that humans beings do the best work when the work is done together. The founder continued to say that, "as a community we share our feelings, we work hard, we share our challenges and through that experience, we grow. For many of our kids, they feel very alone in life and our programs create communities which are kind of like families in which they feel safe, in which they can take risks and hopefully make the decision that they want to work hard and grow and have a good life.”

Partnership with Colavita

Marisa Colavita, from America’s most trusted family brand for fine Italian gourmet products, told i-Italy about how her and her husband’s partnership with Community of Unity began. After visiting the school and meeting the children, she said that “it was a beautiful moment but also a very difficult one because I realized that these kids in front of me had problems much bigger than themselves and much bigger than me. I realized I didn’t have the proper skills or preparation it takes to work with children who have serious problems at home. However, I still wanted to support the organization and so it came quite naturally for Giovanni and I to provide financially in order to help them.”

She added, “the thing that struck me most about this organization is the immediate and direct impact it has on the lives of children. The main reason we accepted this SONG award is because we want to sensitize others to the cause.” 

When asked about his relationship with Colavita, Komoroff responded that “it’s the 15th year we’ve had this event and we always honor people who have shared their song with us so this year Marisa and Giovanni Colavita have shared so much with us, they’ve really been incredibly generous in providing all of our programs with food, they pay for all of the food that we serve out kids which means all of our kids get to eat healthy food and high quality food and it’s been just the greatest experience working with them.”

For more information on how you can donate to the wonderful Community of Unity, visit their website at: http://communityofunity.org/