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Every Night, a New Nonna
Grandmothers from around the world staff the kitchen of Staten Island’s Enoteca Maria — and soon they’ll have their own product line
Every day, Jody Scaravella pours a glass of wine in honor of his late parents and displays it on a cabinet at his restaurant as a token of appreciation for a mother that has indirectly helped him launch his vibrant restaurant in the underdog borough of Staten Island.
Open since 2007, Enoteca Maria, has become an institution with a dual menu: a fixed Italian side, a second that showcases a rotation of grandma chefs from all over the world, who take over the kitchen to cook foods native to their cultures. They’re turning out the sort of fare that, as Scaravella puts it, “your mother made for you when you were a little girl.”
But changes are afoot. For years, the restaurant has been open four nights a week, but once the staff returns from vacation on Thursday, the owner announced that as of their return, they’ll only be serving on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays while working on plans to release a line of international nonna-approved food products.
Scaravella, who refers to all the cooks as nonnas, credits his mom with the origins of Enoteca Maria: “I lost my grandmother 23 years ago. I lost my mother about 15 years ago and I lost my sister about 14 years ago,” he said. “So I was just trying to recreate having a nonna in the kitchen cooking. I named it after my mom Maria because she left me a little bit of money when she passed away.”
When he first opened, Scaravella, who goes by Joe, only sought out Italian grandmothers, as a tribute to his own family. Eventually, his concept expanded in 2015. “Our first international nonna here was from Pakistan,” he said.
The decision to start featuring other cuisines eased tensions between the Italian grandmas, whose passion for cooking seeped into their relationships with each other.
“There was a lot [of competition], and they’re ruthless,” Scaravella said. “We had times when one lady would make, say, cookies, and then, when she wasn’t there, the other lady would come and break the cookies.”
