A SMALL SLICE OF ITALY
RESERVATIONS START SIX WEEKS OUT AT THE EVER-POPULAR SFOGLIA
By Danielle Friedman
Posted by Our Town on February 26, 2009 · View Comments
For Ron Suhanosky, a great Italian meal is about more than just food. A truly great meal is “an entire experience,” he says, and a memorable one—the ambiance and service, conversation and wine. And yes, the food.
Since March 2006, when Ron and his wife, Colleen Marnell-Suhanosky, opened their Upper East Side eatery, Sfoglia, the chefs have striven to deliver this complete package night after night. And according to critic-luminaries like Frank Bruni, who wrote in the New York Times that the restaurant “makes you want to call (it) your own” and return “time and again,” they have succeeded.
Ron Suhanosky and Colleen Marnell-Suhanosky said they knew immediately that the corner of 92nd and Lexington was the right spot for their restaurant. Photo By: Andrew Schwartz
Nestled on the northwest corner of 92nd Street and Lexington Avenue, diagonally across from the 92nd Street Y, Sfoglia lures diners from the far reaches of the city and beyond with its imaginative, ever-changing Northern Italian menu. Up this month? Wild mussels with tomato, garlic, salami and fennel; ricotta cavatelli with Swiss chard, artichokes and canellini beans; pheasant cacciatore and more. The décor is rustic-chic, with mismatched tables, colorful accent pillows and baskets of fruit scattered throughout. It has risen to become a rare hotspot in the area and is currently booked six weeks out for dinner.
The restaurant is the second for the couple, who both trained at the Culinary Institute of America and who, in 2000, launched their first Sfoglia in Nantucket. At both restaurants (whose name, in Italian, means a broad sheet of pasta), Ron specializes in savory dishes, while Colleen prepares the restaurants’ sumptuous desserts, along with the highly praised house bread.
In deciding where to open their Manhattan location, they were drawn to the “homespun, less trendy,” neighborhood vibe of the northern Upper East Side. They also knew that it was home to many of their Nantucket clientele, who owned summerhouses on the island. (The chefs and their three young children now live in the area, too, just a short walk from the restaurant.) After scouting out more than two-dozen potential restaurant spaces, when they finally stumbled on their particular corner, Ron “knew immediately” that it was the one, and he hasn’t looked back since.
Both chefs have Italian roots, and Ron traces his passion for Italian cooking to the Sundays he spent with his mother’s Italian side of the family growing up.
“I was fortunate enough to have a great-grandmother for most of my childhood,” Ron said. “I would look at her happiness in the kitchen and think to myself, ‘I want to be that happy.’”
The couple’s ties to Italy have only grown stronger with time: they’ve visited the country every year for the past 15 years. And their kids attend an Italian school— La Scuola d’Italia “Guglielmo Marconi” on East 96th Street near Fifth Avenue—where they’re learning to speak the language.
Far from viewing themselves as gourmet crusaders, bringing fine dining to the northern stretch of the Upper East Side, Ron describes his and Colleen’s role in the community modestly. Their hope was to create “a neighborhood place for people to come together,” he says. “The food is a bonus.”
