Food for the stars

Enjoy the Roman touch at Toronto's legendary hotspot

If you haven't had a night on the town and enjoyed a night at Sotto Sotto you've been missing out. If you're looking to find where the stars eat when they're in town this is the place. If you're famous, chances are, you've already been.

At Sotto Sotto, they're very reserved about their business. I was able to find out about this secret hotspot from the owner's brother only because we're friends...and hardcore Roman soccer fans. I caught up with Fabio and his lovely companion at his other brother's restaurant Vaticano in Yorkville.

You're all from Rome - your brother, your sister and yourself. When did you immigrate to Canada?
My sister came here first almost twenty years ago. Then my brother has been going back and forth for the past fifteen years. Then I came last. It took some convincing to get me over here. But you know we all need a breath of fresh air. Rome's become so smoggy...

So when your sister Marisa came over did she immediately want to open Sotto Sotto?
No, no. She started working at a restaurant. She helped in the kitchen, dishwashing..everything really.

So you guys didn't just come over here with a big pile of money and open all these restaurants?
No money.

Wow. That's a success story.
Ya, no money. Just enough for the plane ticket ( laughs ). My sister worked at that restaurant for many years. Then in 1992 she felt she was ready to make the next step and then in April of '93 Sotto Sotto was born.

Why Sotto Sotto?
Sotto in Italian means underneath and we're a little lower than street level. It's also from an old Roman movie.

Was it an immediate success?
No, it took four or five years to really build the name.

How did you build the name? I mean, Sotto Sotto is iconic for being the restaurant of the stars.
There's many secrets...actually there's only one secret...it's me. (we all laugh) No I'm joking. There really are a few secrets to the success. First the consistency in the quality of the food. Then the consistency in the privacy for the famous people. When they come to Sotto Sotto they feel like normal people. Nobody goes to their table. They can really just enjoy their dinner.

How does that work? How do you stop people from going to their table?
Over time it's just become normal. If you're a regular customer you're used to coming and every week seeing somebody famous eating across from you. You'd see we treat these people like a normal customer.

So you give them a special room.
No special room..I can tell you one night Prince and John Malkovich were waiting in line for a table.

How did you get so many celebrities to come there in the first place?
We had the good fortune of being located next to the main hotels like The Four Seasons where all the stars stay. Not to mention that one of the [International Toronto] film festival's main areas is at our doorstep in Yorkville. When our patrons go back to Hollywood people talk, word gets around, and when other stars come to Toronto they've already heard where to go.

Do you have any cool stories to tell our readers about some hot celebrity?
Every body is very friendly. I was impressed once from Sharon Stone. This is a good story ... my brother was just about to become a father and one day she showed up with this big gift and said "this is for your brother's first born." How some big star like that can find the time to remember from a conversation en passant over her dinner that my brother was going to have a baby...that impressed me. Maybe it's that they feel so comfortable. It's a family owned place...very warm.

What else?...Tell me more.
One night it was just nuts. We had Ian Nielsen, Robin Williams and Harrison Ford.

All in one night?!!
All in one night. Saturday night. All the women went a little crazy. We were a little nervous too. To have them all there at the same time. But we're well trained ( laughs ).. They all ended up feeling so comfortable. One patron was talking a long time on the cell phone, you know, so Robin Williams grabs the phone out of his hand and says " Hi, this is Robin Williams..." I don't think the person on the other line believed him. We thought it was funny. Harrison sat there for a while after just sipping scotch and talking with us..he knows a lot about restaurants.

Your sister has created a genuine hotspot.
My sister, she's a great lady. She's done something I think no one else can do. She puts so much passion. That's the secret in this business. You can put millions into a restaurant but if you don't put all your passion and love into running a restaurant you'll find it empty one day.

Is Marisa going to open another restaurant?
Actually she just opened Sotto on the Village. At Spadina Village. As for me maybe soon I'll make the step to open my own. I have a good teacher.

You sure do.

Publication Date: 2006-05-14
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=6252