After 15 years in College Park, Tornatore is closing

Tornatore’sChef/owner Denny Tornatore says he doesn’t suffer from customers.

The small dining room, with just 36 seats, is filled most nights with regulars, largely those who have incorporated this place into the College Park community for 15 years and who stain copious amounts of red sauce from their shirts.

But from now until December 23, Tornatore’s Restaurant & Italian Market will be busier than ever. Last week, Tornatore announced it would be closing.

This was a shock to many, especially this old-school Italian restaurant. like that always busy.

However, he says that being constantly busy in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak does not necessarily mean that it will be profitable.

“The first 12 years were great,” Tornatore says. “But now, with food and labor costs being what they are, I’m too busy staying open. “My employees are doing great, which is great, but I’m not going to break even in the restaurant business.”

He says he’s been thinking about the idea for a while. Working 80 hours a week and barely being able to see her children (Izzy, 16, and Leah, 9) took its toll on her. He says stress is causing him health problems. When her landlord told her he was selling the plaza and she learned the rent had been tripled, she decided to pull the trigger.

“I needed to make a change.”

One of seven children, Tornatore (he has six sisters) grew up in a small town outside Syracuse where his family grew onions. It wasn’t a legacy he wanted to carry on, but farming, if nothing else, is a foundation of hard work. It is mostly made in the cold, especially in upstate New York.

“My house was right next to an Italian restaurant called Graziano’s. I spent a lot of time there watching Tony Graziano (in the kitchen). “I wanted to be like him.”

When one of his sisters moved to Orlando (they all eventually did), Tornatore followed her and opened an Italian deli in Deltona; he ran it for three years before venturing into the kitchen of Apopka’s popular Cafe Positano. He remained there for about ten years.

“I was a manager, a bartender, and learned a lot about Amalfi Coast-style cooking from chefs,” he says, but eventually the entrepreneurial itch returned. The intention was to open his own place, but friends in Positano offered a partnership.

The venue that would become Tornatore in 2010 was opened as Cafe Positano Pizzeria.

“It looked different from other venues, but the menu was pretty much theirs,” he says.

Four years later he bought them.

“I had a year to change the name — it was part of the deal — but I was running out of money and learning hard lessons as I went along. That’s when ‘The Impossible Restaurant’ came along and changed my life in one day.”

In 2015, the popular Food Network show changed its usual script when host Robert Irvine surprised Tornatore with a guerilla-style makeover in an episode titled “The Ambush.”

“I didn’t know they were coming,” says Tornatore, even though he met the producers a year ago and was rejected for the show. “They got a very real reaction from me.”

More importantly, that same day, the restaurant’s name was changed to Tornatore’s. And the episode was quite the event.

“We were hit,” he says.

“It was a worldwide commercial. Because we’re in Orlando and people come to go to Disney World, they watch this show from all over the world and decide they have to come to Tornatore’s. “It was life changing.”

In fact, the show was so popular that Irvine returned four times, which helped propel them into the spotlight.

Denny Tornatore says catering, charcuterie classes and private dinner events will continue after the closure on Dec. 23.
(Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel) “I couldn’t have made it without him,” Tornatore says of Irvine. “We took off from there.”

Then came the epidemic.

“Food was getting so expensive that we were going to have to change our prices to what they needed to be to make money,” he says. “I needed to change the ambiance.”

Tornatore was closed for dinner for three months, during which time they remodeled. He hired K Restaurant alumnus Jason Wolfe to head the kitchen. Closed for lunch. Tornatore’s is set for a fine dining relaunch.

“But it was all a big mistake,” he says. “Jason’s food is incredibly delicious, but closing for lunch cost us a ton of revenue and I lost my entire delivery business. “No one wants to take away a $40 steak.”

Tornatore went back to what he knew, the old-school Italian he grew up with, and went to the kitchen himself.

“It took about six months to dig myself out of that hole, get us back to where we were, and we’ve been kicking ass ever since, but this year has been an absolute grind. Labor costs have skyrocketed. Food costs have skyrocketed. We’re still full but I’m turning people away and I can’t afford it. I need more seats. I need a bar.

The news that the beloved landlady was leaving was the final blow.

Tornatore will remain open until December 23 — “This place is going to be a madhouse,” he chuckles. “Probably the best month I’ve ever had.” – but will hold the place until February 1 and continue to do catering, Dolce Far Niente dinners and his own business. popular Delicatessen Academy events.

He says he’ll find a ghost kitchen from now on and keep working while he figures things out.

Wine, cheese, chocolate and delicatessen classes ensure you have a delicious and good time

“We have some opportunities to explore and some time to figure out which direction we want to go.”

He also plans to take some time off.

“I want to get my energy back, spend some time with my kids, have a beer at 2 o’clock on a Wednesday afternoon,” he says with a laugh.

However, the road to all of this will be filled with the emotion that permeates your voice as you think about it. He says the love and support has been non-stop since his announcement on social media.

“I could cry,” he says. “Unbelievable. For 15 years, I watched kids who got their first jobs here grow up and have careers and families of their own. I can’t tell you how many locals from the neighborhood walk here several times a week. I know them all. “It’s going to be very emotional and sad for all of us, but I’m prepared.”

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