I’m sitting at the bar of Il Posto Accanto with the Empress of East Second Street–the title bestowed upon owner Beatrice Tosti by the New York Times. It’s a fitting moniker for the native Roman, who naturally commands authority and who passionately tells stories, her thick stacks of bracelets and rings jingling lightly as she tells them.
Shortly after moving to New York in 1989, she met Dominican New Yorker Julio Pena out dancing, and the two became inseparable; 32 years later, they still are. Together, in 1995, they opened their first venture, the now-defunct Il Pagato, a casual spot for simple, high-quality Italian cooking. At the time, Tosti had no experience running a restaurant: “I am not a chef; I am a cook and I’m very happy to be a cook,” she tells me. “But I always had this dream of feeding people.” In 1999, they opened Il Posto Accanto, which literally translates to “the place next door,” besides Il Pagato.
Today, the restaurant feels like an extension of Tosti’s dining room–a warm, unpretentious space that mirrors the style of her cooking. Here, no-fuss, ingredient-driven traditional dishes get a bit of flair thanks to Tosti’s personal twist, and while she welcomes new flavors that she finds at local markets, she is very vocal about honoring Italian culinary conventions. “People still cannot put Parmigiano on pasta with seafood.”
How has your business survived in a place like New York City after all these years?
We are a neighborhood place, so everybody knows that there’s going to be somebody that they know here. But first of all, my husband Julio. He is honestly one in a billion. Julio is wonderful to talk to and he resonates with everybody, princes and crowbirds. So on the human level, that’s the reason. Then, the amazing staff that have been with us for so long.
Then, very lastly, my terrible food. I shop exactly for the restaurant as I shop at home. I shop. It’s not that somebody goes and picks; I choose myself. It’s amazing ingredients, consistency, good people, and good food. What else do you need?
How do you think your upbringing in Via Boncompagni influenced the cuisine and the atmosphere of the restaurant?
I was never allowed to go in the kitchen growing up because I was chubby. My very skinny mother would always tell me, “Beatrice, you cannot live for the food, the food has to be sustained”–and I’m like, “What?! I absolutely live for the food.”
My mother was famous for entertaining. She threw the most wonderful dinner parties and cocktail parties, and I think that’s where I got my exposure. Even though she didn’t cook, she was extremely ingredient savvy and this is the same way that I am. I always say, “If all the ingredients are good, we can’t mess it up too much.” Now the restaurant is cooked, thought, and planned like a dinner party every day.
Do you feel like you’ve been able to maintain the Italian lifestyle here?
In the restaurant, yes. With the quality and the love that we put, each of us, in what we cook.
Do you import your ingredients or source them locally?
Allora, it is a mixed bag of tricks. The sea salt, the extra virgin oil, prosciutto di Parma–everything that is Italian is from Italy. But, we have amazing farmers at the farmer’s market. I shop at the farmers market between four and five times a week.
In what ways do you feel like you’ve had to evolve Italian traditions for the New York City context–or have you not had to?
No, not at all. Here we are in Italy. But I evolved myself as a cook. I am obsessed with food from the ‘80s. I make a mean Genovese, which is a super traditional Neapolitan dish I’m famous for. I love old, slow-cooked food. Then you know we do a lot of Roman dishes, and maybe we put a little twist to it–but nothing un-Godly.
