STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Celebrity chefs Dave Pasternack and Vic Rallo have closed their award-winning Hell’s Kitchen restaurant, Esca. The business partners have Staten Island roots with Pastavino, Navy Pier Prime and Navy Pier Taproom in Stapleton’s Urby complex.
The pair issued a statement to announce the Manhattan restaurant news. It read, “Following a year of uncertainty surrounding our neighborhood, city, industry, and country, this was not an easy decision. Unfortunately, with the timeline for a return to normalcy still so unclear, this was the only remaining option available to us.”
Rallo explained further to the Advance, “There’s a couple of issues. The landlord won’t work with us. There’s nobody there in Midtown. There’s a lot of homelessness and a lot of drugs in the area. Time Square has no theater. There’s no Javits Center, no Madison Square Garden. That was our busiest restaurant.”
The partners also own two properties in New Jersey — Birrivino in Red Bank and Undici Taverna Rustica in Rumson.
Rallo said business lunches and dinners are gone with the lack of tourism and few visitors to the area.
“And that said, when is it going to be coming back? We couldn’t come up with a timeline where we could get all of our business back.” A routine brick pointing on Esca’s building added to the decision to leave Manhattan. That would mean a scaffold would run alongside the facade hindering visibility. In the past, Rallo said, scaffolding was up for a year.
Esca suffered a fire in 2020. Subsequently, Pasternack and Rallo had pumped over a million dollars in renovations.
“You can’t chase what there is not. And there is none there,” said Rallo.
Will he open another venue in place of Esca?
Rallo said, “It probably won’t be called Esca but Dave and I will probably pursue other opportunities. But it’s got to be perfectly right. There’s hope that we can do something together. Now we’re going to put all our energy into Staten Island. We revamped the menu even more so we tweaked it a little more.”
In the meantime, focus turns to the North Shore operations. Starting with Pastavino, the three spots will see a staggered return with Pastavino on April 13. Navy Pier Prime and its Tap Room component will come back to life about two weeks later.
“We think at that time there will be 50% dining,” said Rallo.
Josh Laurano will continue as executive chef of all the borough ventures.
FOLLOWING THE OPENINGS AND CLOSINGS
The operating histories of Pastavino, Navy Pier Prime and its more casual Tap Room component have been intermittent due to constraints of the coronavirus crisis. On Feb. 18, 2020, Pastavino was born, a less formal redux of a prior venture, Barca which closed on Feb. 6.
Pastavino had three stunning weeks “hitting our stride,” said manager John Gorga, as the new concept appeared well-embraced by Staten Islanders.
On Sunday, March 15 as dining rooms were shuttered across the state in the quarantine stage, Pastavino served its final dinners to patrons seated at tables. That happened a week before Navy Pier Prime (rebranded from former Surf) was set to open, a steakhouse on the second floor of 37 Navy Pier Way with panoramic harbor views. Instead, the downstairs Navy Pier Taproom opened with burgers and pub grub.
Operations on all places ceased three weeks into the format as the takeout model was not sustainable. As Gorga expressed, “to go” was not the impression the staff wanted to convey with their hospitality and food presentations. Pastavino reopened around Mother’s Day, closed, then opened again on Aug. 1. The Tap Room reopened July 2. and Navy Pier Prime came back with indoor dining on Oct. 1. Everything at Urby under the Pasternack/Rally umbrella closed temporarily on Dec. 15 when indoor dining once again was banned.
Gorga said wryly, “I’m a pro at opening and closing restaurants. It doesn’t get easier, it’s just becomes a habit.
”Between the dining room, the staff, the wine, the kitchen...it’s a lot of moving parts.”
Pamela Silvestri is Advance Food Editor. She can be reached at silvestri@siadvance.com.
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