CURRENT ISSUE
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| An Industry Legend |
| Cover Story | |
| By Kathryn Jones | |
| Tuesday, 01 May 2007 | |
 From Venice to London to Hong Kong to New York, Cipriani continuously opens restaurants in prime locations throughout the world. “The success of the company is simple to understand,” Cipriani says. “We give what customers want. We try not to impose anything on the customers so that they feel free, because freedom is what it’s all about. “Then, you have the spirit that comes from inside [the company] and we spread this out to everybody else, and that is the secret of our success. The only help we need is from our customers, and they have been following us all over the world.” ‘The Spirit of Venice’ From Venice to London to Hong Kong to New York, Cipriani continuously opens restaurants in prime locations throughout the world. Among the company’s nine New York City locations is the Rainbow Room – the legendary restaurant that the company acquired in 1998, which sits 65 stories above Rockefeller Center and offers unsurpassed panoramic views of the city. Cipriani 42nd Street – which is located inside the Bowery Savings Bank building – is one of the most significant landmarks in New York history. The building dates back to 1921 and is known for its monumental and ornamental architecture. The restaurant’s “marble floor mosaics recall the splendors of St. Mark’s basilica and the 30-meter-high columns, the glory of the Greek temple” the company says. “Even if the Ciprianis are convinced that true luxury is a question of simplicity, the sheer size of [Cipriani] 42nd Street gives it that extra something.” The room can hold more than 1,000 people. Other New York locations include Harry Cipriani on Fifth Avenue, Downtown Cipriani in Soho, Cipriani Dolci, which is also in Rockefeller Plaza, and Cipriani Wall Street. “New York is my favorite city in the whole world,” Cipriani says. “New York is what Venice used to be in 1500. The spirit of Venice in the 1500s is now in New York.” He adds that he plans to open more restaurants in New York. However, the company currently has its sights set on Miami and Los Angeles, with at least two more Cipriani locations expected to open by 2009. The Rainbow Room isn’t the only notable view Cipriani has to offer. Across the Atlantic, the Ciprianis opened Harry’s Dolci in Venice, Italy, located “in the far corner of the island, next to the old Stucky mill, in an oasis of tranquility,” the company states, “[where] a long line of tables runs along the front of the largest canal in Venice, originally built for large ships and ferries.” A Legend is Born In 1918, after serving in World War I, Cipriani’s father, Giuseppe Cipriani, answered an ad for a server position at the Hotel des Alpes in Madonna di Campiglio, Italy. “He knew German because he grew up in Germany, so he knew two languages,” Cipriani explains. “After the end of the war, by knowing Italian and German, he had the [opportunity] to speak two languages. So, he went to a place where he could speak both. “He never stayed in the same place for very long,” he continues. “When he felt he had learned enough, he would change locations.” Throughout the 1920s, Giuseppe Cipriani went from hotel to hotel “learning everything there was to know about luxurious service, commitment to the customer, the importance of detail and the essentials of bartending,” the company says. The Bellini When he felt he learned enough, Giuseppe and Harry Pickering opened Harry’s Bar in Venice in 1931. “[My father] was a great bartender,” Cipriani reflects. “Nobody made drinks the way he did.” This is in fact quite literal, because Giuseppe invented the Bellini, a Prosecco and white peach cocktail, which is now known worldwide. The Bellini was created in 1948, the year the Venice Art Biennial was reinstated after the end of World War II, Cipriani says. “The Renaissance painters had an exhibition, and my father was making a drink with champagne and fresh peach juice,” he says. “He made it up for the painters, and it was an immediate success.” In fact, the drink was named after 15th-century Italian Renaissance painter Giovanni Bellini, who was known for his use of sensuous colors in landscapes and nudes. The Carpaccio Two years later at the 1950 Venice Art Biennial, Giuseppe invented the Carpaccio, a piece of raw filet sliced very thin that is often served as an appetizer. The Carpaccio was named after another famous 15th-century Italian Renaissance painter, Vittore Carpaccio, who favored red colors reminiscent of raw beef. The dish is now an Italian delicacy, popping up in various restaurants throughout the world. “Other people make imitations,” Cipriani says. “The real Carpaccio is the one we still serve in our restaurants.” An Important Lesson In 1958, Giuseppe fulfilled his lifelong dream to open a hotel of his own by establishing the Hotel Cipriani in Venice. To concentrate more on the hotel business, he handed Harry’s Bar down to his son, Arrigo. Cipriani says the most valuable thing his father taught him was treating all customers with the same respect. “He was fantastic,” he says. “He would address queens, kings and normal customers, and all the customers would feel like queens and kings. He knew what was important and what was not important, which I understand now. “The customers are the most important. They’re fantastic people. There’s nothing else you need to do but be yourself. That’s another important thing. “Always try to be the same. People come back to find the same food, the same service and the same yourself. It would be terrible if they found someone else.” Keeping some Distance Cipriani says that one thing he never did was establish friendships with his customers. “One thing I never did and my father never did was take any kind of confidants,” he notes. “I don’t have friends. I only have customers. “I have always believed that the customer’s place is on one side of the bar and the barman’s on the other. If you become too friendly with one person, your other customers can become a little jealous.” Ernest Hemingway Cipriani’s father had served so many unique characters, that he began writing down his experiences in "Harry’s Bar: The Life and Times of the Legendary Venice Landmark". After he passed away, Arrigo Cipriani finished the book on his behalf. Giuseppe Cipriani wrote that the only customer he ever drank with was Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway was stationed in Italy during WWI, but returned to Italy in the late 1940s, where he had a small apartment and a corner table at Harry’s Bar, just as he had his own table at the Closerie des Lilas in Paris in the 1930s. He included a scene at Harry’s Bar in his novel, “Across the River and into the Trees”: “There was no one in Harry’s except some early morning drinkers that the Colonel didn’t know and the two men that were doing business at the back of the bar,” Hemingway wrote. “There were hours at Harry’s when it filled with the people that you knew, with the same rushing regularity as the tide coming in at Mont St. Michael.” “His generosity was almost excessive and his checkbooks ran to more pages than his novels,” Giuseppe wrote. “At the time, a photograph of the two of us was passed around. We are both wearing enormous sombreros. I am laughing, whereas Hemingway, with his gray beard, seems lost in a dream, lost in the sea of empty glasses in front of him. He was the one who emptied the glasses.” Arrigo Cipriani adds that Hemingway’s favorite drink was the Montgomery Martini. “When he ordered, he said, ‘The English general would never fight the enemy unless he had 15 men against one,’” he recalls. “And, that’s the portions he wanted in his martini. Fifteen portions gin and one portion vermouth.” “Only once, when he came back to Venice after the plane crashes in Africa, did we ever go on a spree together, and that took me two days to recover from,” Giuseppe continued in the book. “It was the only time I have ever drunk with a client. His health was already beginning to decline, and the plane crashes in Africa a few years later were the final blow. I remember him sad in 1954. He said that Gordan’s Gin was the best antiseptic in the world, but perhaps he no longer believed it even then.” Hemingway committed suicide in 1961. Orson Welles “You could hear Orson Welles’ laugh from halfway down Calle Vallaresso,” Giuseppe wrote. “As big as a wardrobe, when he came in, it was because he was hungry and thirsty. He would wolf down two plates of sandwiches, and then drink two bottles of iced Dom Perignon almost in one go. “Then, he would lounge back in his armchair and look around with an air of intense satisfaction. He would pretend to be gruff, but he was really generous and completely disorganized. He often forgot to pay the bill and, once, I even had to go the station where he was boarding the train. He stuffed a whole wad of travelers’ checks into my hand just as the train began to move. “Sign them in my name, Cipriani!’ he roared, laughing, and his laugh – he could laugh without taking those long cigars out of his mouth – covered the sounds of the wheels as the train pulled out of the station.” Georges Braque In 1936, the French painter Georges Braque came into Harry’s Bar with an entourage of friends. “He had a painting wrapped in paper under his arm,” Giuseppe wrote. “‘Cipriani!’ he said. ‘I haven’t got any money, but I want to have a meal with my friends. I can leave you this painting in exchange.’ “I certainly didn’t want to offend him, but I also didn’t want to establish a relationship with a client that was different from my other customers; “It doesn’t matter,’ I replied. ‘Order what you like and you can pay me when you’ve got the money.’ That day, I turned down one of the best deals that has ever come my way. But, I don’t regret it. “Thousands of artists have come to my bar. Many of them have paid their bills regularly; others haven’t. The paintings that I own, I have bought myself, and I have never wanted to mix business with pleasure.” Queen Elizabeth II In 1960, Queen Elizabeth II paid an official visit to Rome, and then sailed to Venice on her royal yacht, the Britannia, to eat at Harry’s Bar. “Two months before her arrival, I received a letter from the court asking me to provide them with a lunch menu,” Giuseppe wrote. “I sent them three and they chose all of them. “I could have invented menus full of exotic-sounding names, but disguising straightforward dishes with elaborate titles is not a ploy I indulge in. Instead, I included … our humble yet ever-faithful spaghetti all’amatriciana, and that was the dish the Queen chose immediately and with great enthusiasm. She was extremely happy with her choice.” Giuseppe described the Queen as “really quite down-to-earth and reserved. She has a quiet, sweet smile … [and] when she left the restaurant, she gave me – as a token of her gratitude – a beautiful pair of golden cufflinks engraved with the royal coat of arms,” he wrote. Truman Capote For 25 years, Angelo Dal Maschio worked as the head waiter at Harry’s Bar. “‘Angelo’ was always Truman Capote’s first word when he came into Harry’s,” Giuseppe wrote. “It was Angelo he wanted, because Dal Maschio did the customers’ thinking for them. If Angelo recommended anything, it had to be good. “Truman Capote hid his perceptive glances under a show of studied boredom, but nothing escaped him. He wrote about the sandwiches at Harry’s Bar in a piece describing a long journey he made along the Yugoslavian coast. The most interesting part of the journey, he said, was getting back to Harry’s Bar and to its prawn sandwiches.” The Venetian Count One of Giuseppe’s strangest clients was “the only man in the world who could sleep with his eyes open,” he wrote. “He was an aging Venetian count, who had decided to share his title with an American woman who was no spring chicken, either. “To guard himself against the cloying boredom of having to listen to her, for over a decade, he had constantly refused to speak any English whatsoever. When they went out to dinner – inevitably with a group of Americans – he would stare straight ahead of him in a state of self-hypnosis. “I would put his plate in front of him and then give him a gentle prod,” he added. “He never woke up with a start. On the contrary, he would automatically pick up his fork and slowly start eating.” ‘Our Best Critics’ Arrigo Cipriani says he still serves famous clientele at Harry’s Bar and other Cipriani restaurants, especially in New York. For example, Woody Allen has been known to eat at the restaurants from time to time, and whenever Cipriani sees Allen, “It’s always a wonderful experience,” he says. “We have a lot of film actors, writers [and] painters,” he adds. “They still come. Of course, we have many more customers than we used to have. “We have always believed in human beings. I am a great lover of human beings, and yet I detest humanity. I despise the flock. I despise people that think the same way. That is why sometimes you’re not successful with food critics. Food critics like the restaurant the way they want it … but our best critics are our customers.” Fresh Ingredients Cipriani says the customers seemed to like its dishes so much, that it only made sense for the company to establish its own line of food products. “At some point in 1983, I thought that what we have been making for years, using ingredients that we use all the time, the eggs, the olive oil, I wanted to be able to spread that around, so I made these [products,]” he says. In 1988, Cipriani and his wife established “Cipriani Industria.” The number of packs is limited, the company says, because production is deliberately kept at the level of a home-based industry, and is supervised by Cipriani and his son, Giuseppe, who was named after his grandfather. “Their personal touch and their presence is what makes the Cipriani experience so unique,” the company adds. Pasta varieties Through the product line, Cipriani manufactures its own pastas such as organic tagliolini noodles, which resemble linguini and come in regular, light tomato and spinach flavors. “They’re good even flavored with just butter and parmesan or au gratin with a little cooked ham,” the company says. It also makes a line of tagliarelle and pappardelle pasta, which differentiate in noodle size and are kosher-certified. “Actually, our factory produces the pasta even better than we make here [in the restaurants],” Cipriani jokes. He explains that the reason is because the machines are programmed to make a perfect pasta, which is something human chefs aren’t always able to do. “You make a dish not perfect?” he asks with a laugh. “It does happen sometimes. We’re human.” Special Sauces To go with the pasta, Cipriani manufactures its own line of special sauces. Pomod’oro is made with tomato puree and pulp, sansovina is a tomato sauce with basil and amatrice is a tomato sauce with 16 percent smoked bacon and 8 percent Prague ham. It also makes Pesto alla Genovese – which “is the ideal sauce to go with tagliardi,” the company adds, as well as Loliva verde, a green olive pate; Loliva nera, a black olive pate; and Olio extavergine della rivera ligure and Olio extravergine della sabina, which are olive oils made from olives that were “picked from the tree when they reach the right degree of ripeness,” the company states. And For Dessert To satisfy a customer’s sweet tooth, Cipriani offers Ció, which are coffee beans coated in the purest chocolate; panettone, a high-quality sponge cake; shortbread butter biscuits and sweetened focaccia. “A cake shouldn’t be sugary,” Cipriani insists. “It should just be good, full stop.” The company also manufactures its own line of jams made from the freshest strawberries, plums and apricots. Bellinis To Go To wash down the meal, Cipriani offers a line of high-end beverages. Caffé di Arrigo Cipriani is an Arabian coffee that has a sweet, chocolaty flavor with a low-caffeine content. Grappa is a dated wine made from grapes grown in the Valle Dei Laghi area, which uses old-fashioned distilling methods. For those who want to make their very own Bellinis, Cipriani supplies both Prosecco and Cipriani Bellini base, which is made with peach puree. The company also includes instructions on how to make a Sweet Maggy, Sweet Amy and Sweet Annie, which are new drinks concocted by Cipriani himself that combine the Bellini base with rum, gin or vodka. ‘International DNA’ Cipriani says his customers are used to a certain taste. He attributes this to what he calls “international DNA.” “If you give milk to a newborn baby, he will like it – if you give him a lemon, he spits it out. That means there is a ‘DNA’ that is common to everybody in the world, and we found that everybody likes our tastes from Chinese to Japanese to Italians to Americans, and so on. “Please understand [that] I’m not being too Italian when I say the Italian taste of food is the most international food. It is recognized by everybody. If you go to a Chinese restaurant, you don’t want to go again the next day. Maybe you will go a month later. But, if you go to a good Italian restaurant, you can go the next day and the next day and the next day.” Cipriani adds that in his restaurants, “you can order whatever you want,” he says. “We have all the local dishes. We have local Italian cuisine passed down from our mothers and wives. I like to say, ‘The French have great chefs, but we have great women. They taught us how to cook.’” |
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