Meet the Chef: Tom Cuomo of Don Tommaso’s

Running restaurants runs in Tom Cuomo's family. To honor that lineage, he named his Yorktown Heights eatery, Don Tommaso’s Bistro Italiano, after his father, Tommaso, who owned Pizza Beat in Yonkers. The restaurant has been open since April. 

When Cuomo was 10, he looked forward to the days when he accompanied his father to Pizza Beat, which was located on Central Park Ave., and helped in the kitchen. During high school, Cuomo joined a relative's restaurant as a waiter.

At Yorktown High School, he practiced and played for the Huskers’ football team on the offensive and defensive lines while working part-time at the restaurant. He also played football at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., and was a starter during the last two years.

Following graduation from R.P.I., where he majored in mechanical engineering, he worked as an engineer for six months. 

When a friend asking Cuomo to join his eatery in Dutchess County, he decided to follow in his father’s footsteps and re-entered the restaurant profession. "He (his friend) knew engineering wasn't for me," Cuomo said.

Two years later, he was ready to open his own restaurant. Hearing from a friend about an Irish pub for sale in Chappaqua, he visited and found it to his liking. It was the first place he had checked out but he would look no further. He signed a lease and after six months of intensive renovation, with help from his father Tommaso and mother Gemma, he opened Grappolo Locanda. Former president Bill Clinton twice held his holiday staff party at Grappolo. 

“Grappolo is not exactly a food-related word,” Cuomo said. ”It translates as bunch in Italian, but I expected to be cooking food in big bunches and I thought the name was appealing.” 

In looking for a larger location in late 2010, his search led Cuomo to the former site of The Heights Bistro in Yorktown, which was unoccupied at the time. It could seat about 76 inside, fit 24 more on the back patio, and the bar could accommodate about 10 stools. A lease was signed in Dec. 2010 and Don Tommaso’s Bistro Italiano opened about four months later. 

Most dishes on the dinner menu (but not tilapia) are also offered at lunchtime at a lower price. For example, gnocchi with tomato and eggplant is priced at $12 for lunch and $16 for dinner. 

Becoming one of the restaurant’s most popular dishes, Tom said, is Rotolini di Spinaci (spinach filled pasta rolls with basil cream and pomodoro), priced at $16 as a dinner course. “It looks like a pinwheel or sushi after it’s rolled,” Cuomo said.

Other best-selling dishes at Don Tommaso’s, he said, are:

• Tilapia at Pistacchio. Pistachio and parmigiano crusted filet of tilapia, Sardinian couscous, grape tomato, asparagus and basil ($22 as a dinner course);
• Cavatappi con Formaggi e Tartuffi. Corkscrew pasta, truffle infused four-cheese sauce and toasted breadcrumbs ($16 as a dinner course);
• Gamberoni al Gorgonzola. Sauteed jumbo shrimp, brandy and gorgonzola cream ($11 as a dinner appetizer)

All of the desserts are homemade except for tartufo and gelato (gelati if spelled in Italian). Deep-fried cannoli is not mentioned on the dessert list but is usually available. 

All martinis sell for $5 each on Monday night. “One of our most popular martinis,” Cuomo said, “is the cantaloupe martini, made with Absolut peach vodka, watermelon liquor and orange juice.” He added, "There is no cantaloupe in it but you would never know that by the taste.”

Beer on tap costs $3 on Tuesday. On Wednesday, wine is discounted. Twenty-one different wines, all Italian, are available by the glass. No corkage fee is charged at any time if you bring your own bottle of wine.

A $21 three-course, prix-fixe menu is available for dinner Sunday through Thursday, and on Friday or Saturday up to 5:30 p.m. The restaurant will hold its first wine-coupled dinner in November - four courses each paired with a glass of wine.

Specials change weekly and run from Friday through Thursday. Filet mignon is a popular special, customers have asked that it be put on the regular menu, and it will once the menu is updated, probably in three or four months, Cuomo said. He is also expanding Don Tommaso’s selection of craft beers. 

Cuomo, his wife Heather, and their 11-month-old daughter Serafina live in Yorktown.

Don Tomasso’s is open seven days a week for lunch and dinner. It opens for lunch at 11:30 a.m. every day except for Sunday, when it opens at noon. It opens for dinner every day at 4 p.m.

Don Tommaso’s Bistro Italiano, 334 Underhill Ave., Yorktown Heights, NY. 914-302-7900. www.dontommasos.com