«I say I come from the city of Fellini and New Yorkers finish the sentence». The 44 year old from Rimini, Alessandro Arseni grew up on bread and hotel business because his family has owned two accommodation facilities: for around forty years the Hotel Augusto and for eight the Villa Augustea, an architectural pearl built at the beginning of the twentieth century by the painter Ferruccio Luppis, in past the site of exhibitions and then a Nazi prison in the Second World War.
For him to open the restaurant in 2016 in New York “Misirizzi” it was therefore a natural transition that marked his life in two phases. Now he spends the colder months in the Big Apple and the summer on the Riviera to lend a hand to his family, after having entrusted his partner, Syria Morselli, with the American restaurant which boasts around eighty seats and around ten employees. full time, more men than women, average age 30 years. The difficulty in finding staff has also appeared overseas and, due to skyrocketing rents, fewer and fewer Italians are working in their compatriots’ restaurants. In Arseni’s, however, there is no shortage of memories of Romagna, from the texts for the piada to the finds from the long restoration of Villa Augustea, such as a telephone with a handset and a memo of useful numbers printed on it. As for the name of the restaurant, “Misirizzi”, he chose it because it sounded good, evoking a puppet with a spherical base which, if unbalanced, immediately returns to an upright position, recalling childhood but above all the intrinsic law of New York: “Never give up” (“Never give up” (“ Never give up”).
Arseni, why double work from one end of the ocean to the other?
«I spent my adolescence inside the most classic postcard of Rimini when hotels sent Christmas greetings to customers who booked the same room for decades. But it didn’t always go like this, because when I was younger and up until I was ten, my parents sent me with my brother to Milan to visit our mother’s relatives. In short, when the good weather arrived, the opposite journey compared to the tourists awaited us. Then, as I grew up, there was no sign of the desire to study and in the winter Rimini was too tight for me because there was nothing to do, so at 21 I went to improve my English first in Los Angeles, then in Scotland for a year until I returned to the United States to work. With catering it was love at first sight and the tip system made all my plans come together. I set off with a backpack on my shoulders without too many thoughts like any self-respecting young man. Seven winters later I opened the place.”
Where is the restaurant located and what clientele does it attract?
«Between the East village and Soho in a very popular residential neighborhood called Noho. An area, so to speak, once frequented by the artist Andy Warhol and full of architectural milestones. We are on Fourth Street not far from Bond, one of the most sought-after streets, with apartments for sale from 5 million upwards. Nice people, in short, including many university students.”
Battle horse?
«The strozzapreti made famous by the documentary of the actor Stanley Tucci away in Rimini. The donut that we serve in slices is also very popular, so no one asks why the hole is missing (laughs, ed.). The attempt to make people appreciate the piada, which is too reminiscent of Mexican tortillas, is more difficult, but also to obtain a wider variety of Romagna wines compared to other bottles. Finally, pasta in broth is little understood, so much so that we have revisited the cappelletti which we serve with squacquerone sauce, rocket and crunchy ham. As for the appearance of the place, the idea of the designer Mattia Sagaria, who created one of the first Starbucks places to open in the Milanese capital, was to reconstruct a Milanese house from the Seventies.”
The biggest difficulties?
«The pandemic took care of the cards: since then we have no longer been open every day, for lunch and dinner but only in the evening, also to accommodate employees, with Sunday as the closing day».
What do you miss most?
«If you are born by the sea, you can’t live without it».
Famous clients?
«The actors Paul Giamatti and Ryan Atwood, in the past star of the television series OC and now protagonist of Gotham, a prequel to Batman. Added to the list are theater critics and directors, faces less familiar to the general public, as they are always behind the cameras. A curiosity? Some stars arrive disguised to avoid attacks from fans.”
Do New Yorkers know Rimini?
“Absolutely yes. When I introduce myself, I say “I come from the city of Fellini” and those over thirty finish the sentence by mentioning Rimini. Then the trouble begins, because they know the master’s filmography better than any Italian.”
A reflection?
«We need more people from Romagna, around the world, so that all our creativity is distributed equally, a bit like vanilla sugar on cakes, penetrating deeply to give inspiration to others and allow us to go back to enjoying our sea . In peace.”
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