when you want, where you want.
From Spaghetti to Spleen
Photo: Joe Buglewicz/Redux/Joe Buglewicz/Redux
After operating for 12 decades at 151 Union Street, the abrupt, late-February closure of Ferdinando’s Focacceria came as a shock to many who knew the Carroll Gardens institution for its back-home-style Sicilian classics like panelle; stuffed, sun-dried tomatoes; and the Vastedda, a spleen-and-ricotta sandwich. Many also wondered what would happen to the space, a historic building brimming with memories. This week, we got our answer: longtime owner Frank Buffa passed the torch to Sal Lamboglia, the chef behind the nearby Cafe Spaghetti, Swoony’s, and Sal Tang’s. We caught up with Lamboglia, who, in addition to celebrating the announcement, is expecting his third child “any day now.”
Were you even thinking of opening another restaurant?
I’m always looking around. People are always calling me. I’m always interested in taking a meeting and seeing what’s out there. This soon? No. So that came as a surprise.
I heard that you were selected by Frank.
Frank called me this morning. I guess a radio station had just called him and asked about it, so that news came from him. He’s like, “I’m just letting you know that they called me today.” I’m not gonna do a Sicilian accent, his is legendary, and my parents grew up in Naples and I know all the accents, but he said, “I just wanted to let them know that I picked you because you’re a good man.” He said some really nice things, it was special.
We knew each other. We obviously had places on the same block, but the number of people who knew both of us — I mean, I got 200 messages today that said, “we love Frank, we love you, we’re so excited!” So it’s like I knew him for a long time. Now we’re like best friends.
How did you find out that the space was available? Did you approach Frank after the closing?
I didn’t approach him. I had a really good friend and neighborhood regular reach out to me a while back and say “Frank wanted me to mention to you if you’d be interested in taking over Ferdinando’s,” and I said absolutely. But I didn’t reach back out to Frank. I just waited for him. Of course, I was waiting and freaking out. I told my wife about it. But when it comes to this location, there’s no broker. It was just Frank deciding for himself. So this scenario was really special where his decision was only gonna be made by him and no one else.
It’s definitely a passing of the crown moment. Do you feel like you’re ready for the stature? Are you prepared to be there for a hundred years?
I hope so. I’m smiling from ear to ear. It’s an honor. I’m big with family history, and of course, Italian culture, antiques and old photos. He’s got so much of that inside there that I’m gonna keep. It means that much to me and to the whole community even more so.
Sounds like you’ll be doing a historical renovation. It is such an old space, though, I’m sure you will want to clean it up.
Yes. Paint and do all that stuff. I put myself in Frank’s shoes for a second and all the things that he has on the wall and has glued to the showcase — there’s this flower pot with fake lemons coming out of it, and I want to move it, but I realized that it was glued to the glass showcase, so that’s where it might live forever. The bones are amazing, it’s such a special place. But it needs a nice little face-lift, so we’ll be doing some of that.
Is there a hearth in there?
No, there’s an old fireplace that is not working, but it can be working.
Will you hold on to anything from the previous menu? Did the restaurant come with a cookbook?
It all just happened really, really quickly. It wasn’t like in my other restaurants where I went to go see the place four or five times and sit down and I knew what I was getting. This is not like that. I don’t really know yet. I’m sure that there will be things from their menu. I’m just trying to figure out in what capacity and what style.
One thing that I will say, which means a lot to me, is Frank already said we can make a couple of dishes together whenever I want. So I’m hoping to get that on the books in the next couple of weeks, where we can make a couple of things that he treasured, which of course is like so cool, right?
Yeah, you’re gonna have to film those and pass them on or something.
It’s so special. I didn’t think he was gonna say that, but he said “If you want to make the panelle, we make it together.”
The tripe stew is a big one.
In Naples, they sell tripe on the street. They cut it with scissors, it’s so aggressive like that. Nobody here really wants it just like boiled and steamed with lemon. But I’ve made so many versions of tripe stew over the years: at Locanda Verde, at the Dutch with Fritos. I love making tripe. It’ll be there at some point.
Now that you have multiple Italian restaurants in the same neighborhood, what are you going to do to distinguish this one?
This one is gonna be … I don’t even know yet, but it’s not gonna be like Cafe Spaghetti. Whatever it is, it’s gonna be different and I’m in. It’s been fun. I just jumped into that stage again of figuring out what to do and how I’m gonna do it, so I’m enjoying the whole process now. There are so many things that I wanna do. It’s so special for me, taking it over and signing it and being in the space.
More Eating New York