Il Capuccino: Family Business Has Been a Sag Harbor Favorite for 50 Years

An early review of Il Capuccino in Sag Harbor was prescient, Achille (Jack) Tagliasacchi, the restaurant’s founder, remembers. The New York City-based critic wrote that once the food — and the charm — of Il Capuccino were discovered, “they will be lining up and down the street to get in.”

A half-century later, they are still lining up on Madison Street before the beloved Italian ristorante’s opening, and Tagliasacchi, almost unbelievably spirited and spry at 94, still greets longtime and new customers alike.

“We have people that come every single week,” he told a recent visitor, “sometimes twice a week.” Many of his customers now take their grandchildren to Il Capuccino, he said.

Perhaps it is no surprise that Tagliasacchi became a chef and restaurateur. His native Parma, in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy, is known throughout the world for its cuisine. Food being an art form in the region, families were competitive in gastronomic creations, he said. “My mother was an excellent cook, and my aunt also was a cook.”

On a recent day at Il Capuccino, his daughter, Amber, who began working there at an early age, and her family paid a visit to the patriarch.

Days earlier in Parma, Tagliasacchi noted, the Cena dei Mille, or Dinner of the Thousand, had taken place, the historic city center “transformed into an open-air gourmet restaurant for a thousand people,” according to Emilia Romagna Turismo. “In an atmosphere of luxury and refinement,” writes Parma Incoming Travel, “an elegant and illuminated table awaits you, embellished with centerpieces created with unique local products.”

The atmosphere at the candlelit Il Capuccino, with its red and white checkered tablecloths and raffia-bound wine bottles, is decidedly cozier, and every bit as welcoming. Along with his culinary talents, Tagliasacchi is also an artist, many of his paintings decorating the restaurant’s walls along with one depicting a street where he played in his youth by the late artist Francesco Bologna.

“That building doesn’t exist anymore,” he said, gesturing to the painting. “It was bombed during World War II.”

It wasn’t long after that conflict, in 1954, that Tagliasacchi, who had already spent time in Switzerland and France, went to Argentina.

“I loved to cook from an early age,” he said. “I always had a passion for it, but I was going to school as an accountant — that was my profession.”

In Argentina, he worked for an Italian company for a short time, but “soon I had a chance to go back in the business.” He opened his first restaurant in Mendoza, in 1954. “And since then,” he remarked, seven decades on, “I’ve been in the business.”

He came to the United States in 1958. “I didn’t know any English then” and was thus unable to work in accounting, he said, but chefs were very much in demand. He worked at a few restaurants in Miami, including that of the singer Julius La Rosa in Hollywood, Florida. “I stayed with him until I came to New York.”

Five years later, in 1963, Tagliasacchi landed at Canoe Place Inn, in Hampton Bays. “Three dining rooms, they used to seat over 700 people,” he said. During that summer, Frank Barry, an owner of Baron’s Cove in Sag Harbor, offered him work managing its restaurant. Eventually, “I was going to leave to open my own place,” he said. “And Bob Barry, Frank’s brother, said ‘I don’t want you to leave.’ I said, ‘My dream is to have my own place again.’” Barry offered to sell it, and with silent partners Tagliasacchi bought Baron’s Cove. “I was over there until 1980,” he said.

Upon selling the business and the building, he bought a property in East Hampton and opened Il Monastero Ristorante, but in 1974, while at Baron’s Cove, he bought 30 Madison Street in Sag Harbor. “I wanted to have a small Italian restaurant. That’s when I opened up, and I’ve been here since.”

Asked what it is about Il Capuccino’s offerings that continues to draw connoisseurs a half-century later, Amber is quick with an answer: “the complimentary garlic rolls.”

“I just didn’t want to the serve sliced Italian bread,” her father recalled. “Honestly, it’s not really my creation, but I remember in Rome, at one time, they served crostini — they had olive oil and garlic, and they were hot. I remembered that, so when I opened, we made our own here, and that became a landmark. I mean, we are more famous for garlic rolls than anything else, which is not true because we have great food here.”

“Didn’t we bring the first cappuccino [machine] in town also, even on the East End?” Amber asked.

Yes, was the reply. “I brought one from Italy, an old one.”

But there is so much more to Il Capuccino’s culinary offerings. Pasta, of course, is prominent on the menu, from Tortelli D’Erbetta to Tagliatelle alla Bolognese to Lasagna Napoletana. There is no shortage of seafood: Frutti di Mare, Salmon Capuccino, Gamberi fra Diavolo Shrimp. From the land, Rib-Eye Steak, Veal Scaloppini al Marsala, Petto di Pollo ai Funghi are among the delectable second courses.

“The chef uses a lot of local seafood,” Amber said. “You have your Italian dishes, and then we also have a ribeye steak. So it appeals to everyone.” And, she said, “we have great salads,” among them the Amber Salad.

Given the abundance of weekly and even twice-weekly customers, “every week we run a special,” Tagliasacchi said, “and we change and incorporate different kinds of food, to also please the American taste.”

On holidays like Mother’s Day or Christmas Eve, “the specials are according to the holiday,” Amber said.

“We make everything,” Tagliasacchi said. “It is still the old way we used to do it. Nothing artificial. And people enjoy it.”

Throughout its 50 years, Il Capuccino has remained a family affair, Jack and Amber agreed. “They grew up in the restaurant,” Jack said of his four children. “They didn’t feel they were in a restaurant. It felt like their home.” His son, Luigi, owns Cappelletti Restaurant in Noyac.

“I cut the mushrooms, breaded the veal, picked the basil, cleaned lettuce,” Amber remembered of her early years. Her father “definitely instilled the work ethic. And once I was old enough to be out on the floor, I bussed tables and then, at 18, started serving.

“My mom worked here, a long time ago, as well,” she added. “So when either one of them were up in the office, I would be hanging out in the restaurant, or I could take a little walk through town.

It’s basically another home for me, and I’m proud of it.”

“It was always my dream to have a small, charming place,” Tagliasacchi said. “I always say, if I’ve been here 50 years, I must be doing something right.”