 |
| Jamon Iberico de Bellota (Photo credits: H.C.) |
As the glistening jamon iberico de bellota melted on the
ordinary wooden cutting board, restaurateur Francis Schott resisted from
dangling a thin slice into his mouth. Instead, he reeled through the oak
forests of northern Spain and their tarrying pata negra pigs feasting on
acorns. Catherine Lombardi’s is nothing without its stories.
“The difference between good and great is authenticity and
also its complexity,” Schott said. “You’re going to taste this for a long
time,” restaurateur Mark Pascal said.
Pascal shares the joys of
Italian-American home cooked dinners of his grandmother, after whom the
restaurant is named. The effervescent business partners bring to the dining table
angelically soft mozzarella oozing after its fresh massage in salt water. They
offer the flirtatious spark of orange garnish in their Brooklyn cocktail. Their
ice balls seem magical. They’ve captured New Brunswick’s attention day and
night.
However, chain restaurants are pushing independent owners
out of the spectrum, Pascal said. “Because the thing about being an independent
owner is that, (when) the Bennigan’s closed, the stock holders lose value on
their stocks,” Schott said. “When some of these independent restaurants close,
people’s lives are turned upside down.”
In addition, the decline in reflective food journalism doesn’t
help, Schott said. Lists, such as the top 10 restaurants in New Brunswick,
place emphasis on competition within restaurant services and demonstrate lazy
journalism, Schott said. “I don’t view food as a contest,” Schott said.
Catherine Lombardi’s and co-owned restaurant Stage Left
faced a similar conflict during the 2008 economic crisis that shook neighboring
restaurants to discount overdrive. For Pascal and Schott, quality experience
was without a doubt their best survival technique. “As far as plate went and
service went, those weren’t compromises we weren’t willing to make,” Pascal
said. “(Customers) didn’t have the money to do it (fine dining) for a while,
but they didn’t forget that they enjoyed some of those finer things in life.”
Finer wasn’t the only term that resonated in their elegant
dining room, but also simple. Call them pioneers, Pascal and Schott were
determined to bring fresh ingredients to the table not because it was
fundamentally a cool story, Pascal said. “We knew our guests well enough to say
OK, do you trust me?” Schott said. “That was the key; we were the conduit
between the producer that makes the cool thing and the people in the community
so that’s how we view ourselves.”
Pascal and Schott also love to translate their food
interests in their food talk show, The Restaurant Guys on 1450 WCTC. The
program first aired in 2005 for nine years before its hiatus. They intend to
return in the near future, Pascal said. These brotherly partners couldn’t
wish any more from their jobs. “I chose this because I love all of the parts of
this,” Pascal said. “I love the people parts of this. I love the food parts of
this. I love the hospitality parts of this.”
Allyson Ricarte is a student at Rutgers University, studying journalism and media studies, art history, and digital communication. She hopes to work in Broadway production.
Allyson Ricarte is a student at Rutgers University, studying journalism and media studies, art history, and digital communication. She hopes to work in Broadway production.
