Running A Private Business On Public Park land. The Parks Department revenue division is now permitting Parks-owned Patrizia's of Bayside - formerly Valentino’s on the Green - to close its lunch and dinner options to the general public to allow the concessionaire to exclusively focus on its catering services. Until further notice Patrizia’s will only open for its scheduled catered events. Difficult to see the public benefit here. (Photo: Yinghao Luo)
Queens
After a change in identity and ownership less than six months ago, a Bayside restaurant has closed its lunch and dinner offerings, the city Parks Department said, according to Times Ledger.
According to a Parks spokesman, Patrizia’s of Bayside will only offer its catering services after it originally opened for lunch and dinner in June. Any future plans at the location were not disclosed, however.
The Parks-owned restaurant replaced the upscale Valentino’s on the Green with a more moderately priced Italian cuisine approach over the summer and kicked off with rave reviews, the restaurant said.
After its opening week, more than 1,000 dinners were served at the 201-10 Cross Island Pkwy. location without the help of advertising, management said.
Giorgio Kolaj, who also ran Valentino’s on the Green, said the restaurant needed to shift its focus to catering due to a packed schedule of parties. Until further notice, he said Patrizia’s will only open for its scheduled catered events.
The building operates under a 17-year lease as of its name change in June, Parks said. The Bayside restaurant’s website has been under construction since Patrizia’s opened in June.
In June, brothers Giacomo and Gennaro Alaio took over the restaurant when it changed its name to Patrizia’s of Bayside. The new eatery officially opened June 12 and featured a completely revamped family-style Italian menu, which Gennaro Alaio said was designed to make the establishment more accessible to customers throughout the region.
“We wanted to reopen it as more of a moderate family Italian restaurant,” he said. “The new approach included bigger portions and a more casual dining atmosphere.”
The shift in focus and more moderate pricing was intended to keep the business running, Parks said, after Valentino’s’ more expensive menu had become difficult to maintain in a declining economy.
The Alaio brothers said the Patrizia’s name extended far beyond Queens before its move to Bayside with locations in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Stamford, Conn. The owners brought their brand of Italian cuisine to Bayside in June as part of a plan to build a presence in all five boroughs, the brothers said.
Read More:
Patrizia’s pivots business to only catering parties
Times Ledger - January 12, 2012 - By Phil Corso
Read More:
Patrizia’s pivots business to only catering parties
Times Ledger - January 12, 2012 - By Phil Corso
The whole concession proposition is questionable. And it's grown out of control in the last decade. The state of the parks declines, the budget shrinks, the civil-service workforce is replaced by welfare workers -- and the concessions grow in size and number. The big picture is not pretty. The impact on the parkland and the communities has not been addressed.
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