Food for Thought

First Principles in Fine Dining

Daydreaming is one of Phil Romano’s favorite activities. Forty years of success guarantee that he’ll keep doing it. His successful restaurant concepts come from a personal set of beliefs he has followed throughout his life.

Raised in upstate New York as the son of hard-working, family-oriented Italian immigrants, he grew up surrounded by love, loyalty and good cooking. Eating was the center of family life. Relatives shared meals sitting around the kitchen table with a jug of his grandfather’s homemade wine. From his Grandpa Philip, he learned modesty and nonverbal communication (since Grandpa spoke only Italian). His grandmother, Mama Rose, taught him the power of positive thinking. His mom was endlessly patient and fiercely devoted. His father, a shrewd judge of character, trained him to notice subtleties in human behavior. Romano’s dad always told him to be the best at whatever he did. “If you’re a bum, then be the world’s most famous bum,” he urged. His father taught Romano to develop “points of difference” to set him apart from ordinary people. These homegrown values became Romano’s foundation.

Romano was a poor student, primarily...