NYC restaurant seats customers in apartment next…
Now this is home cooking!
Upper East Side Italian restaurant Caffe Buon Gusto has been quietly seating customers in an apartment next door when their eating room is full, cramming them into its two bedrooms, lounge and even hallway — gorgeous the unsuspecting.
“I had zero idea. They have a main dining room, that’s where I assumed we’d be, but when we got there, it was a different story,” stated Dylan Rozell, who was dyspeptic at the prospect of eating in a “bare bedroom” when he visited the East 77th Street joint on Valentine’s Day final 12 months with three pals.
“We kept going further back and we go through the kitchen, they bring us down really narrow stairs, then up another set of stairs and next thing you know, I’m in a walk-up building and they open a door to an apartment,” the Staten Island native who lives in FiDi advised The Post.
Rozell chowed down on his gnocchi with vodka sauce topped with burrata — which he stated was “freaking delicious” — in one of the 2 bedrooms of the apartment.
Dylan Rozell and his pals, who made Valentine’s Day reservations at Caffe Buon Gusto, dined in the bed room of an apartment next door. Courtesy of Dylan Rozell
“Isn’t that crazy? There were two tables in our room, and the room was small, giving classic New York City bedroom vibes,” he defined.
“And it was silent in there. Not even an ounce of music.”
Other diners occupied different spots in the four-room abode.
“There was one table filled in the living room and then one in the second bedroom,” he continued.
When Rozell ventured to the lavatory, he was in for yet one other shock.
“There were beer cases stuffed in the bathtub. I was very confused,” he confessed.
When Rozell entered the apartment’s rest room, he was shocked to see instances of beer inside its bathtub. Courtesy of Dylan Rozell
Other patrons identified the “strange” seating state of affairs in their opinions on OpenTable, where the restaurant boasts a 4.3 out of 5 ranking for its atmosphere.
“We were seated in a back space that looked like an apartment. The ambiance in that room was particularly strange and quiet as we were eating in the hallway of an apartment,” famous a buyer who dined there on March 8.
Caffe Buon Gusto — “Good Taste” in Italian — opened in 1988, and is housed on the first flooring of a six-story walk-up.
To the correct of the restaurant is the doorway to the residential building, where apartment No. 1 has been rented by the restaurant’s proprietor, Nando Ghorchian since 2021, according to property information.
Gabrielle Gorman, who lived in the flat-turned eating room for two years until 2019 with a roommate, came upon the restaurant took over her pad after she noticed a TikTook video in March which didn’t title the situation, which was first recognized by East Side Feed.
“I was like, ‘OMG, that was my old bedroom!’” Gorman advised The Post. “I was absolutely shocked that I used to live in that apartment.”
The apartment is conveniently situated close to the restaurant’s kitchen, accessible through the building’s aspect door.
“That door was always open and you could see into their kitchen,” she remembered.
This first flooring apartment is getting used to seat restaurant customers. Helayne Seidman
The restaurant’s kitchen will be seen through the building’s aspect door. Helayne Seidman
Gorman stated she was shocked that the restaurant — whose priciest pasta is a $42.95 linguine with lobster, shrimp, calamari and scallops — would shell out additional dough for the pad.
“I just think it’s fascinating that they could afford that apartment too,” she stated. “By the time we moved out, the rent was up to $3,200. When I first moved in, it was $2,900.”
The building is owned by Taormina Holding Corporation, primarily based on East 74th Street, who stated: “There are no violations regarding the apartment. Furthermore, the office has not received any complaints from the other tenants regarding the tenancy.”
Caffe Buon Gusto is housed on the first flooring of a six-story walk-up. Helayne Seidman
In 1992, Ghorchian debuted a second Caffe Buon Gusto location in Brooklyn Heights. In 2023, he opened a third in Hoboken. He had one other location in Riverdale, which has since closed.
He didn’t return requests for remark by The Post and employees at the restaurant declined to remark.
Shari Logan, assistant press secretary for the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene advised The Post: “New York City and New York State health regulations prohibit home-based restaurants,” noting that properties can’t be used as eating areas.
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