Besito's Tunney: Exceeding Expectations

Restaurateur, entrepreneur, boss, angel investor. Lots of names can be applied to John Tunney III, recipient of the 2010 Restaurateur of the Year award from Family Service League.

Call him CooCoo and you'll just draw a grin. Tunney is the angel investor for a text-messaging system that delivers real-time updates on train schedules for the Long Island Rail Road. The system, introduced in March, is expanding to include updates for Metro North, he says, and he's in talks with other transit companies for providing the service for their systems as well.

More than 100,000 people use the system, he says, approximately 60% of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's LIRR riders. "We see great spikes on bad weather days and when they're doing track repairs," he said, noting high use during the recent switching fire and system upgrades. It's an indicator of a service whose time had come, developed from an idea presented by Ryan Thompson, an employee's friend. Text 266266 (CooCoo on cell phones) with a station-to-station request, say Huntington to Penn, and your reply will be the schedule for the next 5 trains with details and service updates. Users pay only what their carrier charges for text messages.

"I like to exceed the expectations of people," Tunney says. It's an approach that he brings to his businesses, which range from his three Besito restaurants (Huntington, Roslyn and Connecticut) to his Tunneyvision consulting business, Honu Kitchen and Cocktails in Huntington, American Roadside Burger in Smithtown, and his newest venture, Ballo Italian Kitchen and Social Club at the Mohegan Sun Resort and Casino in Connecticut.

Ballo is expected to open in the spring. The 10,000-foot Italian-theme restaurant will include three bars, a pizza oven, a mozzarella bar and homemade pastas. After 11 p.m., he says, diners will be encouraged to dance on the tables, creating a social environment and living up to the name, which means dance in Italian.

He goes to the Mohegan Sun site on the ferry from Port Jefferson once or twice a week now, and plans on spending more days there when it gets closer to the launch. He did his research for décor and food offerings by visiting Italy – Rome, Portofino, Positano, Tuscany , among other stops – just like he visited Mexico while researching authentic flavors and décor for Besito.

He attributes the success of his restaurants to consistency and considering what people want. "I know what I like and I'm pretty critical. I'm considerate of what people like. The food business has gone beyond just having something to eat – it's about the ambient experience."

Tunney isn't from a restaurant family, although he credits helping his grandmother entertain when he was ages 7 and 8 with feeding his interest. "I'd catch fish and then she would cook them for dinner, and I'd help her," he says. "When other kids were drawing fire engines, I would try to draw the door of the restaurant."

His restaurant business includes expansion plans for another Besito or two, and he says he's looking for a location along the South Shore. Is he perhaps also looking out on the island's eastern end? "I consider it every season," he laughs. "I love the water. I like both forks. I'm out East about once a week."

Tunney prefers the front end and menu development part of the restaurant business, and he loves working the room. "I love food more than most people. I'm always tasting, so I know when a sauce isn't velvety or the taste is a bit different. Consistency is everything."

He's also big on getting others to try things they think they don't like. "I build them a perfect taste, make sure it's just the right amount of sauce, not too much protein," he says. "I love to have people taste things, to make them a one- or two-bite sensation of what we serve. It makes the experience. Bottom line – we care about them."

There's one thing, though, that he doesn't understand how to change – what he calls people's flavor profiles. "I can't get them off the entrée picks," he laughs. "They'll try different appetizers, but what they order the first time is just about always what they order every time they come."

Tunney looks at the staff at his restaurants as a team. "In a race, the car isn't good without a driver or pit crew or a tire. It all makes a harmonious symphony. That's what we try for here. I tell the staff, 'Each night at 5 it's a live show.' There are no re-dos.

"We hire nice people and teach them the Besito way," he says. There's low turnover among the staff, and workers recommend their friends and family when positions come up. "That's how it works here, like it was when I was a kid," Tunney said.

That attention to detail and support of staff and community institutions is among the reasons Tunney is being honored as restaurateur of the year by the Family Service League. (Besito will serve guacamole and another dish yet to be decided, Tunney says.)

The credit goes to Family Service League and groups like them, Tunney says. "I applaud them," Tunney says. "People who do what they do every day, who help people, that's a great thing."

Also being honored Dec. 5 at the 19^th annual Great Chefs of Long Island event are Ken Silverman of SilvermanAcampora, a commercial law firm, with the 2010 Community Leadership Award, and , with the 2010 Corporate Leadership Award. The ceremony will be held from 2-5 p.m. at Crest Hollow Country Club in Woodbury. More than 40 of Long Island's top restaurants and chefs will prepare signature dishes for tasting, and there will be wines from around the world and live music. Tickets are $175, or $200 the day of the event.

So far, the event has raised $180,000, says Jennie Sandler of Family Service League, and is on its way to being one of the most successful Great Chef events.