Italian Restaurateur a True Renaissance Man

Lawyer, financial consultant, expert bridge player, interior designer, restaurateur: No question about it, Vincenzo Castaldo is a Renaissance man. And the spirit of the Italian Renaissance is alive and well in his new restaurant, Villa Medici.

Castaldo traveled to the United States for the first time in 1974 as a member of the Italian tournament bridge team. He played in the equivalent of the bridge Olympics in New Orleans. He says he loved America at first sight.

Castaldo was educated as a lawyer in his native Naples but became a financial consultant to construction companies. When he left Italy a few months ago, he said he had done everything he wanted to do there and wanted to start a new life in America. Castaldo, 61, speaks limited English, so his son and partner in the restaurant, Giuseppe Castaldo, translated.

“Neither my father or myself has experience in the restaurant business, but he likes to risk, and I believe that if you have patience and can keep going you can make it,” the younger Castaldo said. “Even though it is a very tough economy now we’re not afraid.”

Vincenzo Castaldo was always interested in architectural design and building. And it is an Italian tradition he warmly embraces, he says, that good food and social life go together. All these interests came together when he bought the restaurant on Pico Boulevard near 4th Street. He designed the interior and planned the menu. Now he wants to share it.

“In architecture there is this law: Something to be beautiful must be functional,” Castaldo said, translated by his son. “So the food to be really good doesn’t have to be bad for you.

People should eat to feel good. And the atmosphere must be friendly. I want people to feel at home in my restaurant--like family--like the television show ‘Cheers’, where everybody knows your name. When our bartender asks how was your day he really wants to hear an answer.”

Opening a restaurant during a recession with no experience in the business is certainly a test for making it in America. But they are optimistic. Once in a while, Giuseppe Castaldo said, father and son have misunderstandings, but these are often the differences between a generation that suffered through the sacrifices of World War II and grew up in better times.

“My father is used to crisis and I am not,” he said. “But we both believe in the mentality of America where everything is still possible and there is the potential to get through crisis.”