00:02Basilio Man has been open since 1921.
00:06It is the oldest restaurant on Staten Island.
00:09Around the end of October, we'll be starting our 106th season.
00:14It's an Italian restaurant.
00:16The best sellers will be the homemade pastas in general, all of them.
00:20The ossobucco, the branzino, the zucchini blossoms.
00:23This is a family business.
00:26My father purchased a restaurant about 50 years ago.
00:30But then in the past 24 years, I've been here every day.
00:35It's going back in time when you come in here.
00:38You're not going to find places like this much longer.
00:42So, yeah, nostalgic.
00:53Hello. Welcome to Basilio Inn.
00:57My name is Maurizio Asperti.
00:59And Basilio Inn has been here since 1921.
01:03Come on in. Let's start the day.
01:07So, I've been working here on and off 50 years.
01:11Longer than I can't remember.
01:13This was a carriage house for a mansion that was on the road.
01:17But the restaurant kept the isolated feeling
01:21because it cannot be seen from the main road.
01:26And unless you know there's a restaurant here,
01:29there's no way of finding it.
01:31Okay, so we're going to start the day by picking up the zucchini blossoms
01:36that are going to be served tonight.
01:38It's actually going to be a special the whole summer.
01:47These are zucchini flowers.
01:49These are the males.
01:51In the summertime, we pick zucchini flowers and the zucchini.
01:55Here's one right now.
01:57We have planted in multiple places.
02:00And I only pick what I expect to use for the day.
02:04The reason being that once we stuff them with cheeses,
02:08which has moisture, and if we pick too many,
02:12then they get soggy and they don't last as long.
02:21This is a bocce cord.
02:23And it used to be very popular back in the 30s and 40s.
02:27It was mostly Italian immigrants that used to come down
02:30from Manhattan or Brooklyn and spent the summers upstairs.
02:35We removed one of the bocce cords so that we could grow more food.
02:40I am from Napoli, a large city in Italy,
02:46and they make it just in a batter and fried.
02:49I guess we, in New York, we used to have stuffed and without anchovies.
02:56It seems that we abhor the anchovies in New York.
03:00I don't know why.
03:01I'm stuffing the flowers with the ricotta cheese,
03:04parmigiano, and mozzarella that are all blended.
03:07Black pepper for the aroma and flavor.
03:11I'm telling you, they've got black pepper in here
03:13because I don't want anybody to think,
03:15oh, there's an ant in here.
03:21Okay, we're all done.
03:23They're ready to be placed in a batter and fried,
03:27but they're now going in the fridge ready for service tonight.
03:38So we did with Dolphinos making raviolis.
03:42Ravioli is another dish that, when I was growing up,
03:45was a time-consuming dish.
03:47Mostly used in the north of Italy,
03:49but the majority of the pastas that had the filling in
03:54were made up north.
03:57So now he has made the dough
03:59and it's going to run it through.
04:02This is a very tiny batch.
04:04When we make a batch,
04:05we make maybe 50 orders of raviolis.
04:08So this one here can be stuffed with many things.
04:12Sometimes, around October,
04:13we make it with the pumpkin that you saw this morning
04:17or burno squash.
04:19Today we're doing spinach and ricotta
04:22because they're the ones that we have on the menu.
04:25We could do with the different sauces on this.
04:27We do either the fresh tomato or the brown butter.
04:32So Delfino's going to finish the raviolis.
04:35I'm going to prep for the bucatini.
04:37The bucatini that we make are a little wider
04:39than the ones that you buy in a store.
04:41We put in the flour.
04:45This is a durum wheat, super fine.
04:48This gets mixed with about a third of water.
04:51We made pasta on Monday.
04:53We might need to make it again on Saturday.
04:55And then if we had to make a lot,
04:58we freeze it even if it's used two days later.
05:04It's early afternoon.
05:05The bucatini is done.
05:07We need to go upstairs during the final touch
05:11before we open up for service at 3 o'clock.
05:16So I start my day by having an espresso or two or three.
05:23It is an integral part of my waking up.
05:26Now I check the reservations,
05:28see what's needed for the restaurant for the day.
05:34Hello, Basilio.
05:36Hi, I'm calling to make a reservation.
05:38I'm an automated service provided by Google,
05:39and this call is monitored and recorded
05:41to improve Google services.
05:42Do you have an available table for 7 p.m.?
05:45Yes.
05:46For how many people?
05:48Yeah.
05:49How many people?
05:50It's going to be four people.
05:52And the name?
05:55The name?
05:56Okay.
05:56So do you need the name then?
05:57Yes.
05:58The first name is hello, that's H-E-L-L-O.
06:01And the phone number?
06:02Um, first name is hello, H-E-L-L-O.
06:06Okay, got it.
06:07All set.
06:09The reservation come from artificial intelligence,
06:13a bot that will make the calls and reserve the table.
06:18I will say that I'm getting maybe 25% of the reservation
06:22through Google now.
06:24The restaurant was purchased by my father about 50 years ago.
06:30He worked in restaurants and ships, actually.
06:33That's why he got all the ships on the wall.
06:36He always wanted to have a restaurant.
06:38So it was a dream of his.
06:40And the opportunity presented itself with this place.
06:43I made a promise to him that we will keep it running.
06:49But eventually it's going to come to pass.
06:51You know.
06:52Again, if I hit a lot of it tomorrow,
06:56we're not shooting any more videos.
07:02This is the founder of the restaurant, Basilio.
07:05This is in a backyard.
07:07So these bocce courts are the bocce courts that we showed before,
07:11but now there's only one that's much narrower.
07:14These people playing bocce, they're all wearing a tie.
07:18There was a decor that no longer exists.
07:20Different etiquette, different time.
07:24Some years ago, I found this recently in the attic.
07:28We received a letter from Bon Appetit requesting a recipe for our tiramisu,
07:34which we never replied to.
07:36And then you came along.
07:41So, I don't know, synchronicity or whatever it's called?
07:46Well, I guess, now I think about it,
07:48you are going to be in Bon Appetit.
07:50It's just 34 years later.
07:54Yeah, yeah.
07:55So, I can't escape it.
08:00It is now 12 o'clock.
08:04Service will begin at 3 o'clock.
08:06The rest of the staff will be coming in in about an hour,
08:10and that's when all the things will start.
08:13Well, it seems that my eyes are darting all over
08:18and noticing little imperfections here and there,
08:21little things that shouldn't be there or should.
08:25One of the things that get checked is that if the tables wobble,
08:29if the table has all the silverware,
08:34if it has Basilio Inn on it.
08:36And then over here, where the arches are,
08:40that's because the carriage house from the mansion,
08:43and that was headed on about 70 years ago.
08:46So, minor things have taken place.
08:49It still retains the old, very old feeling.
09:02This is where the meats get cut and prepped.
09:07And it's been sanded down a few times.
09:09It's an old block, about 38, maybe even 40 years old.
09:14Saul has been with us for a number of years,
09:18and he's getting ready to prep pork shanks,
09:21pork ossobugo, if you will.
09:23We put it over mashed potatoes with porcini mushrooms,
09:27so it's got a very earthy flavor.
09:29We're gonna clean it up, remove the excess fat.
09:33These are cooked many places in Europe and in Italy.
09:37It was an inexpensive cut of meat
09:40that was served with a special spoon
09:42to remove the marrow, the bone marrow.
09:46That spoon is called esattore.
09:49Esattore is a tax collector,
09:51so it takes everything out of you.
09:53And we're gonna toss it in flour
09:55and give it a quick frying,
09:57just to coat the outside.
09:59And then here is a pot
10:01where we're putting in the soffritto.
10:04Fritto is like a mirafoix.
10:06In goes the olive oil, the onions, the carrots,
10:09the celery.
10:10So we're putting wine on it.
10:12And then that gets placed in there
10:14as the wine begins to evaporate.
10:16And then we're gonna put it in a tomato sauce
10:19and braise it.
10:21So it's a long process,
10:23and then it cooks for a while.
10:25That's why it needs the prep and time.
10:30We have people already coming in.
10:33We're gonna do a duck breast with a fig sauce.
10:36This is something that it's done when it's ordered.
10:39It's not pre-prepped.
10:41We're gonna do as soon as the order comes through here.
10:45It will be done with a sauce with flour, figs, butter,
10:51white wine, sherry, shallots, and a little veal stock.
10:57It then gets reduced and the breast is cooked separately
11:02and then added to the sauce.
11:04Duck is the kind of meat that I enjoy
11:07because it doesn't taste like a bird.
11:09It tastes more like beef.
11:12It's richer.
11:12So this is a branzino.
11:14This is one of the most popular fish we sell at the restaurant.
11:18It is imported.
11:20This one here happens to come from Spain.
11:22We get the whole fish,
11:24put some garlic in it, some lemon,
11:26and it goes on a hot grill.
11:28I personally prefer the whole fish.
11:31I think it comes over to the table.
11:33You look at the fish and you know what you're getting
11:36and it smells better.
11:39To cook it evenly, it starts from the top where the bone is
11:43and then we turn it.
11:44So it's a pretty simple, straightforward process.
11:48It doesn't require any sauces,
11:50although sometimes we make sauces that people request.
11:53But then it's a delicate fish.
11:55It overpowers it.
11:56Right now this one gets just plated and it's done.
11:59It's ready to go.
12:00We call the waiters and they come in.
12:03Out.
12:10The prep for tonight's dinner has been done.
12:14It's completed.
12:15People are coming in.
12:16Thank you for coming.
12:17We'll see you at a different time.
12:21Good night.
12:26Good night.
12:26Good night.
Comments