Tom Piscitello is a New York maître d’ legend! He ran the door at some of the city’s best Italian restaurants, including Coco Pazzo, Babbo, Beppe, A Voce, and Ci Siamo.

Tom joined us from his terrazzo in Sicily, where he and his husband now live the semi-retired life of private hospitality, making beautiful memories for their guests at a 3-bedroom luxury lighthouse with a view of Mt. Etna, hosting and taking care of visiting friends and locals. Che bella vita!

Tom saw it all working in the hottest spots in the 1990’s and turn of the millennium New York dining scene, and in this episode he shares some glimpses from behind the scenes and among the celebrity-filled tables at the restaurants that had the bella fortuna to have him as their host.

Join us as we talk about:

~ How to make a good first impression on the welcome

~ The two words that people always say when they’re lying

~ The thing he can’t tolerate from guests or staff

~ How great Esca was and what a genius Dave Pasternak is

~ One way to make a guest “yours for life”

~ The time some old guy punched him for a table

~ The qualities he looks for in a maître d’

~ The one thing you should never ask on a first interview

~ Tom's favorite part of Italian hospitality

Welcome to our 3rd “We’re Booked” episode. Our guest is author, cookbook collaborator, and podcast host, Andrew Friedman.

Andrew has made a career chronicling the life and work of some of our best chefs, and is currently collaborating on a memoir with Daniel Boulud, to be published by Grand Central Publishing in 2027.

Andrew is the author of Chefs, Drugs and Rock & Roll: How Food Lovers, Free Spirits, Misfits, and Wanderers Created a New American Profession. Chefs, Drugs and Rock & Roll (Ecco 2018) tells the story of the evolution of the American chef in the 1970s and 1980s, and is essential reading for anyone in love with restaurants and restaurant history.

To write it, Andrew interviewed more than 200 industry figures including legends such as Wolfgang Puck, Jeremiah Tower, Alice Waters, Jonathan Waxman, and Ruth Reichl.

We started this podcast to have a place to share stories and preserve the rich history of the exciting world of restaurants we’ve been blessed to be a part of.

Listen in as we:

~ go back in time to the incipience of “California cuisine” and its impact on the development of a distinctive American cuisine

~ discuss the confluence of the Blue Ribbon after hours culture and the dawn of the food network in the early 90’s which ushered in the now seemingly perennial era of the celebrity chef

~ highlight the importance of FOH staff being able to call a play in real time

~ hear a real life example of the kind of hospitality behavior Andrew would like to see 86ed.

Fasten your seat belts for a spirit-driven ride through NYC modern cocktail culture with the beloved, legendary, Sarah Morrissey who worked on the front lines of the cocktail revolution in New York from almost the beginning.

Recorded one Saturday over bagels pre-service at Le Veau d’Or, where Sarah’s the AGM and Bar Manager, if you don’t already have the pleasure of knowing Sarah, you’ll feel like you do after joining us for our chat.

One of our main purposes at Maître d’ Diaries is sharing stories and preserving the incredible history of our ever evolving F&B business. During this episode you’ll get a comprehensive overview of all things cocktail, learn what a Sasha Bar is, and stroll down the streets of early 2000-2010’s New York City, past the legendary speakeasies and cocktail lounges that started it all, many of which are sadly closed, each of which played an important role in the way spirit culture has evolved in the 21st century. And you’ll meet some of the major innovators in the bartending world who directly impacted what we now experience as standard when we go out for a cocktail.

Sarah epitomizes the amount of hard work, enthusiasm, and devotion to information acquisition required to work in beverage at a high level restaurant or bar. Her knowledge of all things spirits–and insider information about how the city’s most popular bars are run–is matched only by her incredible warmth and the down-to-earth genuine affection and appreciation with which she welcomes every guest she comes in contact with.

You’ll also hear about Erica’s new favorite gin–just in time for the upcoming G&T season. Cheers!