40 THE QUEENS COURIER • JULY 27, 2017 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
19th Annual
Great Lawn Summer Concert
St. John’s University, in partnership with the Queens Symphony Orchestra, presents
A Midsummer’s Enchanted Evening
M1-11250-RM
Featuring Christopher Macchio, Tenor, and
Martin Majkut, Queens Symphony Orchestra’s newly appointed Music Director
Enjoy an evening of enchanting arias and songs sung by tenor Christopher Macchio,
plus the lush and romantic Symphony No. 5 by Tchaikovsky.
Wednesday, August 2, at 7 p.m.
St. John’s University, Great Lawn
FREE Admission and Parking
For more information, please contact the
Office of Community Relations at 718-990-5892 or
communityrelations@stjohns.edu, or visit stjohns.edu.
Sponsored by:
St. John’s University Italian Cultural Center
dining out
Prolifi c Astoria restaurateur
opens new Italian eatery
BY ANGELA MATUA
amatua@qns.com / @AngelaMatua
Astoria resident Tom Vicari has
spent decades opening restaurants in
up-and-coming neighborhoods across
Manhattan but has decided to return to
his hometown for his latest project.
Vicari, 62, began his career in the restaurant
industry by working at Riccardo’s
Restaurant — now called Riccardo’s By
Th e Bridge in Astoria — when he was 15
years old. Later, he found a job as a waiter
at Tavern on the Green and was promoted
to manager.
Vicari became fascinated with the
restaurant scene and got jobs at major
French restaurants, where he learned
everything about what it takes to run a
successful business.
“I started working for the top French
restaurants in the city where you had to
know everything: the kitchen, how to
carve a duck, fi let of sole, the service, and
you had to be impeccable,” Vicari said.
“Th at’s where I had my good training.”
In his late 20s, he decided to open his
own restaurant in Chelsea, a neighborhood
that still had a reputation for being
unsafe.
“Th ey said, ‘Why Chelsea? Th ere’s
drug addicts, drug dealers, prostitutes,
the meat market. Th ere’s nothing down
there,’” he added.
He opened an expensive French restaurant,
where he “made a fortune,” and
decided to open an Italian restaurant and
Cuban restaurant called Cuba Libre in
the same area in rapid succession. Th e
neighborhood began to change, attracting
more diners to Vicari’s restaurants. At
one point, he owned six restaurants within
two blocks of each other.
Th e restaurateur repeated this formula
in Gramercy, Hell’s Kitchen and the
Upper West Side. He has fond memories
of those days when actors like John
Leguizamo and Rubén Blades, also a singer,
would visit his haunts. His Cuban
sandwich was also named the best in New
York by Th e New York Times and New
York Magazine.
Rent started to get expensive, and Vicari
decided to retire. He sold his restaurants
and stepped away, but not for long.
“I sold a lot of my restaurants,” he said.
“I thought, let me retire. I don’t need
this headache. But then I got bored.”
He passed by an empty space at 30-86
51st St. at the border of Astoria and
Woodside and discovered that the rent
was extremely cheap. So on June 29,
Italian restaurant Piccolino was offi cially
opened.
Piccolino off ers classic Italian dishes by
Chef Alfonso, who has worked for Vicari
since he was 18 years old. Linguine di
mare, a pasta dish that includes shrimp,
scallops, calamari, clams and mussels in
a light marinara sauce; veal tre amici, a
meat dish that includes eggplant, tomatoes
and mozzarella in a sherry wine
sauce; and chicken Piccolino, which features
pieces of boneless chicken with sausage,
a generous portion of mushrooms,
olives and garlic in a white wine sauce are
just some of the off erings.
Th e reception from customers has been
good so far, and Vicari hopes to entice
more diners to frequent the restaurant
since food options in the area are scarce.
Situated near the Boulevard Gardens
apartment complex, which includes 960
units, the only eateries nearby consist of
mostly delis and a bagel shop.
Piccolino is open from Tuesdays
through Sundays from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m.
Dishes are available to order from Uber
Eats, Grub Hub and Seamless. Visit piccolino.
nyc for more information.