This was originally posted in 2018. When I heard the news this past week that the world had lost this wonderful man and friend to so many, I had a difficult time thinking of what tribute I could write for him. There is so much to say, and no way to express what it feels like to think that he is not going to appear, walking down the street, sitting outside of one of his favorite restaurants, or hosting one of his famous parties. I keep waking up in the morning thinking I need to go see him at some club or party or event, and then I remember. And as I remember, I begin to think about the Rocco I knew, and I want to tell the world all the good things he brought to life. This blog post was Rocco approved. When I wrote it I sent it to him and asked for any edits as I always do when I write about people or places because I want to make sure that the way I am writing about them is the way they want to be shown. He was happy with it and that made me so happy at the time, because I know that though he was always kind, he was honest too, and he would have told me the truth of what he felt about my writing. I'll share it here again because he liked it and shared it with people at the time, and though there have been several years and more wonderful things he's done since then, it will give a view into the life of someone who I admired, loved, and who was extraordinary in so many wonderful ways.
Notes From The City - An Abundant Life - La Dolce Vita
May 20, 2018
The first time I met Rocco Ancarola, he was wearing a costume. I was writing a blog post about Antique Bar & Bakery, and one of the owners had invited me to the Halloween Silent Disco, the first Silent Disco in Hoboken. I am not big on costumes or Halloween - I will admit that my vanity doesn't allow me to do anything that I think will make me look foolish. A designer friend once arranged for a group of us to go to a party in a cornfield dressed as the entire cast of "The Wizard of Oz" and she made me the most beautiful Glinda The Good Witch gown, but it is rare that I will dress up in a costume for anything. Years ago I used to love to dress up, and after I met Rocco and experienced his joie de vivre I started to wonder what had gotten me to start worrying so much about what anybody else thought. He is a very handsome and charismatic man, an icon in New York and international nightlife, and yet there he was, wearing an outfit and a wig and looking as if he was having the time of his life. Since I've gotten to know him more in the months since then, I've started to understand that whenever Rocco is in the room it's a party. Costume or not, holiday or week night, he brings a sense of laughter and fun wherever he goes that is contagious. The night of the Silent Disco a friend of his introduced us when he found out I was writing a blog about the restaurant because I had met the other two partners and had not yet met the third. Rocco gave me his telephone number and email address and said I should call him, and we spoke a bit about Antique Bar & Bakery and his reasons for joining that restaurant partnership. I had known that he was involved in the nightlife and restaurant business in New York City, but it was only after I got home and started doing my research that I realized who I'd been talking to, and I immediately called a friend up in amazement. It was inconceivable to me, and magical, that someone with a pedigree like Rocco Ancarola would be so friendly, so kind, and so generous as to take the time to talk to me. When I said that to him later, as we sat down to talk for this blog, he laughed at first in his charming way, and then he said something that is a key to the phenomenal success that he is. He told me that he never really thought about himself or his ideas as being extraordinary in any way. He works hard, and when he has ideas, he works towards accomplishing them. In his words, "It's just another day at the office," but in my experience of who Rocco Ancarola is, he and his office are capable of extraordinary things.
As I've written in these pages before, I lived and worked for a long time in downtown Manhattan, and my earliest memories of City life include the places that Rocco Ancarola started, was a part of, and made great. When we sat down to talk one beautiful afternoon at Antique Bar & Bakery, I asked him a few questions about why he moved to New York and what made him decide to start the restaurants he started, because I am simply in awe of the fact that New York City nightlife, and indeed New York City itself, would not be what it is today without him. Currently a partner with the Tao Group in one of Manhattan's hottest restaurants and nightclubs LAVO, his illustrious career includes Mezzaluna, Boom, and Ciaobella in Manhattan, and numerous parties and events that are legendary worldwide. Growing up in South Africa as the son of Italian parents, he came to New York to pursue a life-long dream. He told me that he had always wanted to be an actor, from the time he was a very little boy, something that I can completely relate to because from the earliest memories I have I dreamed of being an actress. His mother came from a butcher's family, and both his father and mother gave him a love for fine food and wine. Growing up with the experience of having wine barrels around the house because his father made his own home-made wine, he saw an excellent possibility in New York with the vision that is his trademark, and he decided to start a wine importing company with a friend. Then, when an opportunity came to work at Mezzaluna, he took it, learning the art of restaurant service from a waiter he admired. Over time, as he continued to pursue his acting career, he also continued to make friends in the restaurant industry, and after working together and creating a nightlife scene at one place after another, they decided to create a restaurant of their own.
In one of the themes that seems to be an integral part of who he is, Rocco was always looking for ways to do something that no one had ever done before. When he was at Mezzaluna, he and his friends created such an enchanting and desirable environment that many of the other Italian restaurants tried to copy them. The first restaurant he and his partners started, Ciaobella, was such a success that it forever changed the way that people thought an Italian restaurant should be. For a time he left New York for Hollywood to follow his acting dream, and while there he had an inspiration for a new nightlife experience. When he met Chef Geoffrey Murray who had traveled the world surfing and working in restaurants, magic happened. After coming back to New York his next restaurant, Boom, opened to acclaim and went on to win awards and be the place to be seen because of the ecclectic and delicious menu of cuisines from around the world created by his partner and Chef Geoffrey Murray, and a chic party atmosphere that was completely new to SoHo in those years. Other restaurants and lounges and clubs sprang up to try to match the success, but they could not. The phenomenal success of Boom swept across the country, starting a trend by defining the "world food" concept. Using the term "fusion" became synonymous with contemporary haute cuisine as others tried to define themselves in ways that reflected what Rocco and his partners had created, but the fact that set Rocco and his vision apart was always his love of the classics. His DJ's play original classic songs and not the remixes that others use, and even when he opened the acclaimed Rabbit In The Moon, an English Gastro Pub, he kept the theme of authentic English Pub food and classic dishes while always using the best, freshest and highest quality products. Following Boom, Rocco and his partners started Bang in South Beach, creating another incredible cuisine and nightlife experience with food from the Islands of the World, and bringing South Beach to the forefront as a global destination and one of the world's hottest spots. Outposts of Boom and Bang opened in Bridgehampton, Madrid and Mexico City.
Continuing to win prestigious awards, among many others for Boom the Esquire Awards and The John Mariani "Best New Restaurant in the USA", and for Bang the Silver Spoon Award for Best New Restaurant in Florida, Rocco then opened another completely unique restaurant, Two Rooms on Manhattan's Upper East Side in an old house from the 1800's with a white picket fence that featured African design and food from all over Africa. Two Rooms drew crowds that lined up around the block and visitors included Madonna, Seal, U2 and the New York Rangers. In Sag Harbor he opened Rocco's A La Playa, a first of its kind for the Hamptons, serving Cuban and Brazilian food, that became a legendary Jet-Set hotspot destination; and his club Pink Elephant in New York City was nominated as the Best Club in the USA, with Pink Elephant in the Hamptons considered to be in the top ten Best Summer Clubs in the World. He currently runs one of the longest and most successful New York Sunday night parties at LAVO, called Riviera Sundays, and all of this while producing events abroad in the international arena, in such illustrious places as the Cannes Film Festival. His first event at Cannes was for the Camera D'Or award winning film "Slam," with many other events at Cannes yearly after that; he produced yearly events at the Havana Film Festival, bringing among others Actor Matt Dillon's directorial debut film "City of Ghosts" to Havana; at another time he brought Actress Marissa Tomei and Actor Norman Reedus for an exclusive party he produced at the famous landmark "El Moro." For New Years 2000 he produced the magnificently star studded "New Years Eve Millennium" event in Havana with 1,500 people from all over the globe and 500 of the Cuban elite attending, and which was referred to by many in Cuba as one of the most memorable events since the revolution. He has produced events in Sao Paulo for the opening of his club Pink Elephant and the New York club Chaos, and Pink Elephant events in Punta del Este, the playground of the rich and famous of South America and Jet-Setters from around the world; he has also produced events on the exclusive island of Hvar in Croatia and Sibenik, and in the Dominican Republic's exclusive Punta Cana. For five years he produced one of the most exclusive New Years parties in the world in Rio de Janeiro with CARAS Magazine, the most famous celebrity Magazine in Brazil and South America, and he also produced the exclusive yearly top party of the Winter Music Conference in Miami with his friends the world renowned DJ's Paul Oakenfold and Pete Tong. He has produced parties in Ibiza, in Paris for Fashion Week, and in Venice. He has been nominated as one of the Top 10 Promoters in the World by top Italian Magazine Max Italia; one of New York's 100 Coolest People by the Daily News; and he still has time for acting, appearing in Madonna's GRAMMY nominated video "Oh Father" as a lead playing her father as a young man; with Mark Ruffalo in Director Terry George's film "Reservation Road"; the film "Cathedral Canyon" directed by Paul Douglas; and he currently is appearing in the Reality show "Real Housewives of New York." As with everything else he does, he takes his acting work seriously, and has studied with Uta Hagen and Shelly Winters, two of the most well respected and excellent actresses and teachers in the history of New York City theater. He is also writing a film script based on his parents' love story, and a book about his life.
And his story will go on as the legend that he is. Time and time again, as he branched out and created new spaces and new events, they would be so phenomenally successful that there would be others who tried to copy them. But Rocco is Rocco - there is only one, and just as he strives always for a unique and memorable excellence, he keeps people around him who strive for excellence too. As I have written before about Antique Bar & Bakery, I won't go into detail here, but for anyone who hasn't read that post, it is from December 3, 2017 and it is called "The Art Of Perfection" for many reasons, from the Executive Chef and Partner Paul Gerard and his glorious food to Partner and Filmmaker Joe Castelo who brings his film experience to create a perfect scene, the convivial atmosphere, the beautiful and carefully detailed design, and the friendly staff who make everyone feel at home. Rocco shared with me that it was because of its uniqueness and theatricality that he decided to become involved, in his words "With the 100 year old oven it doesn't get more unique than that. A bakery by day and restaurant by night, with food cooked in the 30 ton coal oven by the super talented Chef Paul Gerard, and the visual films of real classic home movies from the 70's arranged by Partner Joe Castelo, and with very friendly staff who sing and dance as they work, this to me is the cherry on top, of what gives the place the Gold Medal for originality and exemplifies uniqueness, from the decor, to the food and the music and the biodynamic organic wines and bar chefs that create cocktails with only fresh ingredients from oven fired roasted fruits and to fresh herbs." I had wanted to meet with Rocco and talk a bit more before writing that post, but as with all things, patience can make timing perfect when we allow it to. Having the opportunity to meet with an icon was made even more special by a beautiful spring day and a wine pairing dinner at Antique that Rocco hosted, introducing Chef Paul Gerard's new spring menu and featuring biodynamic and organic wines shared and paired by Wine Expert Phil Cerrito from Wilson Daniels, that was the first in a series of monthly dinners titled "Wine & Dine With Rocco Ancarola" celebrating family style service, delicious food and delectable wines. The invitation showed a photo of Rocco looking very much like an even more glamorous Marcello Mastroianni with the caption "La Dolce Vita", and the day of the dinner when we met to talk, Rocco was wearing his "La Dolce Vita" t-shirt in homage to that same wonderful film. When I wrote about Antique Bar & Bakery, I used their tag line "Keep The Fire Burning" as an ending note, saying how much they do just that for so many people. For Rocco Ancarola, I can echo that and add the words "The Sweet Life," because of how much he has done and still does to keep life sweet for us all.
Antique Bar & Bakery
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