Wall Street honchos famously spend big bucks to join private clubs in Manhattan – but they’re not usually shelling out for the food.
It may be a different story when Giuseppe Bruno opens his first members-only venue on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. That’s because Bruno is the proprietor of a trio of eateries that have become legendary among the city’s foodies – Sistina, Caravaggio and San Pietro.
These beloved Italian restaurants have quietly catered to the Wall Street, political and entertainment elite for years. It’s a family business in all the right ways; Bruno’s brothers Gerardo and Cosimo play a role, mainly at the Midtown eatery San Pietro, while his daughter Nicolina serves as his right hand at Sistina and Caravaggio on the Upper East Side.
Now, the family is looking to compete against the likes of Manhattan’s top social clubs – Zero Bond, Casa Cipriano, Soho House, and San Vicente – by turning Sistina into a high-end supper club. The main restaurant will still be open to the public (thank god!). But in the coming weeks, Bruno plans to create new spaces dedicated to private dining, wine tastings, and private gatherings at Sistina’s multi-room townhouse on East 81st Street.
“Hospitality has always been about creating relationships,” Bruno tells me. “For more than 40 years, our guests have become part of the Sistina family. This next chapter allows us to deepen those relationships while continuing to welcome new generations of guests.”
He hasn’t worked out the pricing yet, but take it from me: It won’t be cheap. That said, my guess is that it will be worth it.
The wine list is among the best in Manhattan, even if most of its bottles are out of the price range of your humble correspondent. It’s why people who can appreciate (and afford) good food and drink keep coming back, and why Bruno thinks he can take the business to another level by turning Sistina into a supper club for those with discerning tastes.
“This is not about closing our doors,” Bruno said. “It is about opening new ones.”
Bruno and his brothers came to this country from southern Italy 40 years ago, started as waiters and door men until they pooled their money. They inherited their cooking talents, they tell me, from their mom back in the old country. They opened Sistina in 1983, where they began to grow what has become one of the best cooking and wine experiences in the city.
Now, Giuseppe is betting he can compete for the bold-face names in a club setting. While Manhattan’s swankier private clubs are regularly featured in the gossip pages, the Bruno spots remain more low-key though equally impressive in terms of their clientele.
At any given night, you can see the likes of Wall Street titans like Jamie Dimon, Larry Fink, Lloyd Blankfein, Ken Langone and Dick Grasso chowing down on the Brunos’ upscale Neapolitan cuisine.
Leonardo DiCaprio is a fan. So are Joe Rogan and Mike Bloomberg. Brad Pitt had a date night at Sistina last year with his gal pal Ines de Ramon.
Full disclosure: I’m a fan of all three places, partial to the rabbit; it’s a staple of the region my family comes from outside of Salerno, and where the Bruno brothers were born. Last year, while mangiare on some, I was seated at Sistina just a few tables away from Joe Biden, accompanied by the former first Lady Jill Biden.
The former president dined on some comfort food of freshly made spaghetti pomodoro – right after dropping out of the 2024 race for the White House.