Once again, this time before I leave definitively, I’m on the East Coast. It’s more of a layover than anything else; Thursday night I get on the 11th plane I’ve taken in the past 2 months - and the most highly anticipated - to travel 10 hours to Buenos Aires. Strange to think that while this is the longest voyage of all, I’ll be just one time zone away - it’s only an hour later in Argentina than in the eastern US.

On Monday I hop a much shorter flight to Mendoza, where I’ll spend a week exhausting my palate and hopefully having a blast, before settling into BA and trying to find a (real?) job. I promise that when I’m in Mendoza I’ll write a post that’s really about wine… it’ll probably even be pretty geeky. But that’s not really what these 3 days are about.

Other than pack and say farewell to my loved ones (for real this time), there is one thing I am going to do in this brief visit home, which I referred to a couple of posts ago: have dinner at Dell’Anima. It just so happens that my last night in the US is the first night of the friends and family soft opening at my dear friends’ new restaurant in the West Village, before they open to the public next week. Just in the nick of time.

In the hope that my pals will take the free press in exchange for me giving up a couple of secrets, let me give you some background here, and explain why this means so much to me.

Three years ago, as most of you know, I worked for a time at Italian Wine Merchants (IWM). Besides being the sole retail outlet of the Mario Batali/Joe Bastianich restaurant empire, and home to some of the primary Italian wine experts in the United States, IWM has been a training ground for many of the most interesting young wine professionals I know. (Not that I’m not biased.) It has spawned several very cool wine shops in Manhattan, and now, with the opening of Dell’Anima, an independent restaurant that if it’s anywhere near as special as I anticipate will be an amazing addition to lower 8th avenue. (It’s between Jane and West 12th streets, just around the corner from the Corner Bistro).

Let’s start with some character development.

First there’s Joey, the only wine professional I know who is both younger than me and (far) more knowledgeable. I’m used to being the young kid on the block - I was 22 when I was working there – Joey comes along, and the guy can’t even drink legally yet! At the time I knew much more about the Italian language than I did about Italian wine… somehow he got the wrong impression off me (that I actually knew what I was talking about) and decided to one up me. If the restaurant doesn’t get in the way too much, he’ll have a Master of Wine degree before the age of 30, and he was writing about vino before he even graduated from college. Not entirely coincidentally, his was the first incoming link to this blog, from his column in Serious Eats. His first restaurant experience was as a sommelier at Babbo. Not a bad start.

Then there’s Katherine: not only talented, but also beautiful. She was the chef/events coordinator at IWM (they host some unbelievable wine-tastings there), before leaving to help open the New York Wine Company (one of the first IWM offshoots), and now, as the consulting chef, Dell’Anima. All this after working in the front of the house at Per Se.

Gabe, the executive chef, has worked at both Le Bernardin - one of the must highly reputed French (seafood) restaurants in town - and at Del Posto, the crown jewel of the aforementioned Batali/Bastianich group and arguably the best Italian place around. As Gabe and I don’t have as much history, I’ll say simply that he’s an amazing chef and an incredibly warm guy, and I’ll let his food speak for itself.

Behind the scenes (here’s where I’m hoping I don’t get in trouble) we’ve got Augusto, the one member of the crew who has remained at IWM, although he’s certainly moved up in the world. Anybody want to make an investment and start a serious Italian wine collection? Call August. He’s a great guy… and a good guy to know.

So one day Augusto gets a call from his buddy Bobby, who I haven’t yet had the pleasure of meeting. “I found an awesome little space in the West Village, and I want to turn it into an authentic Italian restaurant, one with soul. Do you think you could help me out a little? And do you know anybody who might want to run the show for me?”

August put Bobby in touch with a couple of old friends… enter Joey and Katherine. Thus the birth of Dell’Anima.

(By the way, “Dell’Anima” is Italian for “of the soul.” If you want to see a restaurant where all parties involved have really poured their hearts and souls into it, this is a good place to start. And I haven’t even eaten there yet! No pressure, guys…)

What does any of this have to do with me? Well, for one thing, I like to think that if I weren’t already planning on leaving the country, I would have quit Winebow anyway to be part of this project. (As I AM leaving the country, and soon, none of you need to correct me if I’m wrong.) Joey once told me he wouldn’t be able to afford me; not only is he a master of flattery, but he doesn’t understand quite how special I think the whole thing is. I would have worked for tips just to be part of it.

More important, however, is what this has all made me realize about the opportunities available to my generation, especially in New York, and to those who are willing to follow their dreams. We all started out at around the same time, and at more or less the same spot – early to mid 20’s, with some experience, but not really enough. One thing none of us was lacking, ever, was passion.

Now, three years later, after many new experiences, they’re opening a restaurant which they built from scratch in under 6 months, and I’m moving to Argentina to follow my own dream.

I’m sure that at one time or another you’ve all been told “the world is your oyster…” It’s my friends like Joey, Katherine, Gabe, and Augusto who give me such hope for my own quest, and where it can potentially lead if I stay focused. Who’s to say we can’t someday start our own restaurant empire? What do you say, guys? I’ll sell you my imports at cost.

If the world is an oyster - crack that baby open, and go for the pearl.

October 16th, 2007 | vita