January 19, 2015 | Short Order

Is Ristorante Rosi for sale? "Everything is for sale," says Cesare Casella.
 

 

 

          A restaurateur friend said he got a call that Cesare Casella’s Madison Avenue Ristorante Rosi was for sale. I am a great fan of Casella’s Salumeria Rosi on Amsterdam near 73rd Street, half a block from my office. For a while my guy and I had dinner there once a week.

          Many of my East Side friends haunted the tiny, cramped space too. We sipped the house pink spritzer.  We shared the tiny square of lasagna and the leek torta. These transient East Siders were thrilled to learn Casella was coming to Madison Avenue, thinking they would have their own little small plates Salumeria. And most of them were sad, and then annoyed, when the new spot with its grand design turned out to be a serious restaurant. With much higher prices.  “And nothing we want to eat,” as one friend put it. “We went twice just to be sure,” one couple told me.

 

          “I shop at the counter for salumi to go,” another disappointed neighbor said.

          I was sad and didn’t want to call Cesare but finally I did. “I hear the Madison Avenue Ristorante is for sale,” I said.  He was silent for a beat or two.

          “Well, yes.” he said.  “It’s for sale at the…” he stumbled over the expression.

          “The right price.” I said.

          “Everything is always for sale,” he said.

          “You would sell Salumeria Rosi?” I asked.

          “Well, it doesn’t make very much money,” he said. “It’s too small to make money.”

          That’s all the news I have today.

 

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