The Warden of New York Red Sauce

And the fact that Mosconi leads a solo pasta-making expedition each afternoon are all just a few of the reasons why Monte’s Trattoria has been a neighborhood fixture for nearly 40 years—while so many other old-school Italian joints are becoming as rare as corner candy shops. Mosconi has been working in NYC kitchens since he immigrated to the United States from Italy in 1966.

At first, he and his family threw open its doors Greenwich Village restaurant Villa Mosconi in 1976. Mosconi, now 70, then embarked on a second venture in 1983, purchasing Monte’s Trattoria with family, but taking over as the sole manager of the MacDougal Street business, which had been serving diners since 1918.

Veal saltimbocca Mosconi put me to work, fed me ravioli with meat sauce and Montepulciano d’Abruzzo. Set me straight on why owning property and shelling out for saffron leads to more successful years in the restaurant business than keeping up with the celebrity chefs and trends of the moment. What was the Italian restaurant scene like in New York City when you were starting out? I didn’t want to go back to working for somebody else, and my mind was set to make it in this country.

Who were your shoppers when you first kicked off at Monte’ s Trattoria in 1983? Back then we would serve a plate of pasta with tomato sauce for $8 and a chicken dish for $12—a lot of other places charged more, and it costs double that today. They ask if you have gluten-free pasta, and I don’t want to see people walk out—you have to have it.

What are some of the dishes that were popular in the early ’80s, and how have tastes changed? Many restaurants in the Village have come and gone over the years—for example, Da Silvano, which enjoyed a celebrity clientele, closed in 2016.

At my first restaurant, Villa Mosconi, my siblings and I put a little of our money into that one restaurant and we made money together, a little something for everyone, like my father wanted. According to When my lawyer, monte’s was available for sale in 1983, my interest was not just the restaurant.

In 1983, when I came to this block, it was a little easier to run a business. Okay, we didn’t make the kind of money they do now, but it was more feasible to run a smaller business back then. To last so many years, you have to get up in the morning, have a good breakfast, take your car to work without worrying about traffic, and go to bed at night without worrying about going to work.

It helps to own real estate and to own the place where you put in so many hours to create your vision, because you never know what’s going to happen. But I appreciate my daughter and her husband, John, for taking an interest in me, and I was open to it.