Inside the World of New York’s ‘Restaurant Guy’ and Host to the Stars Emilio Vitolo Jr. (Exclusive)

As the clock ticks closer to 5 p.m. each day, a line slowly begins to form under the cherry red awning of Emilio’s Ballato on Houston Street in New York City, where Taylor Swift had her much-talked-about bachelorette party in the fall.

Since Emilio Vitolo Sr. took over the restaurant in 1991, it has become known for its classic Italian food and old-fashioned charm, as well as a place to see and be seen. (The restaurant’s walls are lined with pictures of its famous patrons, including Rihanna, Barack Obama and George Clooney.)

But no matter who walks through the door, Emilio Vitolo Jr. – who has co-owned the restaurant with his father for the past 16 years – makes one thing clear: “I treat everyone the same.”

“You could be a guy who cleans up the trash or a great singer, and I’ll treat you the same,” Emilio Jr. says. PEOPLE during a recent gathering at Da Mili, his speakeasy near Emilio’s Ballato.

“If somebody’s acting up, I’m going to fucking check them out,” he adds in his no-nonsense New York accent.

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Emilio Sr. was the third person to buy the restaurant since it first opened its doors under John Ballat in 1956. During his childhood, Emilio Jr. says he often watched his father host celebrities like Lenny Kravitz and David Bowie at the haunt.

“When my father first took over this place, he had no money,” he says. “He was borrowing money to keep this place going. Lenny surprised my dad with a brand new awning, and he kept coming in humble. We had a lot of great guys come in, but Lenny’s like the OG.”

Kravitz would also bring his daughter Zoë Kravitz (with ex Lisa Bonet). “Zoë is a great human being,” says Emilio Jr. “We used to run around the restaurant. It’s wild. We’re still friends to this day, so it’s a wonderful thing.”

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While the restaurant has long been a celebrity favorite, it received an extra wave of attention in October when Swift stepped out for dinner with friends Sophie Turner, Brittany Mahomes and Blake Lively.

After the field trip, “everybody said, ‘Oh, shit, you’re going to have a bunch of people down there,'” Emilio Jr. recalls. “I thought, ‘Don’t screw me. Before she even stepped through that door, I already had my solid team.'”

Blake Lively and Taylor Swift in Emilio’s Ballato.

Robert Kamau/GC Images

On how to book one of the world’s biggest superstars, Emilio Jr. — a longtime friend of Turner and her ex-husband Joe Jonas — explains, “I got a phone call from a friend who told me that [Swift] I wanted to stop by, I called one of my friends and I said, ‘Do you want me to take over the reservation?’ Yes or no?’ I won’t name names. But he gave me the green light, and then I let them jump.”

“My one rule was not to bring the paparazzi,” adds the restaurateur. “It drives me crazy.” With Swift, it was inevitable: “When they were about to leave, there were 2,000 people outside, but I didn’t call them. I’m not that guy,” he says.

He can speak from his own experience with the paparazzi. During his public relationship with ex Katie Holmes between 2020 and 2021, they would often be spotted on the streets of NYC

“I tried to take an approach where I tried to get to know all the guys who were taking photos,” he says of that time. “I would introduce myself and say, ‘Nice to meet you. Can you do me a favor? When you get the photos, [can you] disappear? Don’t follow us all the time.’ That worked a little, but what ended up happening was they started fighting over who got the photos and who didn’t.”

“It’s a different animal when you’re in public, you know what I’m saying?” he continued. “It got a little irritating, but whatever. It is what it is. It comes with the territory. It’s almost like a condition. You become public domain.”

Emilio Vitolo Jr. on Late Night with Seth Meyers.

Late Night with Seth Meyers

That’s exactly why Emilio Jr. he wants the restaurant to feel like a “safe house”. While his dad runs the front of the house (Emilio Sr. can often be found sitting at the first table to the right of the entrance with his crew), Emilio Jr. manages the restaurant’s back room where celebrities can retreat for privacy.

“I originally set up the back room of the restaurant as just family and friends,” he says. “What I would do is I would host them personally, and I would wait tables, sit with them, have a drink, and then maybe a cigar late at night. As soon as they walk through that door, they know how I move. They know that he won’t have to deal with the bulls—.”

Inside the celebrity-loved Italian restaurant where Taylor Swift and Blake Lively had their bachelorette party

He opened his speakeasy Da Milio to serve as an extension of that atmosphere.

“It’s not open to the public, per se,” he says. “It’s only for people who don’t want to be bothered and come and take pictures with—. No flash photography. About 99.9 percent of the people who come here, I know. That’s what’s missing in hospitality today. There’s not that personal touch .”

Both a marksman and a natural charmer, Emilio Jr. is an ideal host. But he never imagined restaurant life for himself.

Growing up with his two brothers on nearby Spring Street, he dreamed of becoming an actor, despite his parents’ skepticism. “They were like, ‘That’s never going to happen, so figure out what you want to do. This is the real world,'” he says.

After he dropped out of school, his parents kicked him out, so he took a construction job in Long Island, New York to pay the bills. (His construction experience, he says, came in handy while remodeling Da Milio himself.)

Everything changed in 2008 when his father called him saying he needed to talk to him about “something important”.

“I thought he was sick, because he’s a big guy,” he says. “I thought, ‘What’s wrong?’ He says, ‘Just drop by.’ I get there, and he says, ‘How much did you save? I’m giving you the option to buy at the restaurant.'”

Taylor Swift goes out to dinner with Blake Lively, Sophie Turner and Brittany Mahomes in NYC

Emilio Jr. he says that after three months of thinking, he told his dad, “I’m in.”

“[He] it was like, ‘You’re going to start down in the basement,'” he recalls. “He started me washing dishes. I was like, ‘What the fuck, bro?’ He says, ‘Oh, you think you’re too good to wash dishes?’ I said, ‘Honestly, yes.’ And he says, ‘Well, if you think you’re too good to wash dishes, then you don’t belong here. Get the hell out of here.’ So I thought about it and I said, okay, whatever. I’m just going to play his little game because the way he suggested it to me was like, ‘You’re going to buy into the business. When I’m gone, this is one hundred percent yours.'”

After washing the dishes, Emilio Jr. he moved on to prep work, making pasta and pastries before finally becoming head chef. A moment he will never forget is having to fire one of the chefs for drinking on the job.

“I went to my dad and I said, ‘This guy is drunk. That’s why the dishes are coming out wrong,'” he says. “So he said, ‘So what are you going to do about it? Fire up [him]’ I didn’t fire anyone at that moment. I said, ‘Hey, you’re fucking drunk. Get out of here. You are done.’ I fired him and I ask myself: ‘What are we going to do now?’ And my father says, ‘Put on your fucking chef’s coat. Go to the fucking kitchen.'”

“I jumped in and I said, this is what it’s all about,” he continues. “Afterwards he sat me down and we talked about the whole thing. He said, ‘Now you know why I put you through everything I put you through, because now you don’t have to worry about someone acting out in your business. You have to be able to do everything in a restaurant to have a successful business. It made me look at it differently. It was a big lesson learned.”

Acting is still Emilio Jr.’s passion — he has various TV and film credits, including his latest role in the 2021 film. Birthday cake — but admits that “what I do best is the restaurant business.”

“At the end of the day, the restaurant is our livelihood,” he says. “I have to take it seriously because it’s my bread and butter. If I was just a builder, do you think any of this [people] would she— with me? No, they’re messing with me because I’m a restaurant guy and it’s hard to get into a restaurant. They want to have that exclusivity and say: ‘I know Emilio. I could get us a table.’ I’m not stupid. I understand. I get what the game is about. But at least I understand. The main thing for me is to remain consistent with everyone.”

Chef Emilio Vitolo and Sammy Piccininni welcome baby girl, daughter Angelina Marie: ‘I’m so in love with you’

Emilio Vitolo Jr. and Sammy Piccininni.

Mark Sagliocco/Getty Images for Hamptons Magazine

As he looks to the future, Emilio Jr. he’s focused on growing his business as well as his life at home with his fiancee Sammy Piccininni (he proposed to her at Da Mili on New Year’s Eve) and their 8-month-old daughter Angelina Marie.

“I’m finally at this point in my life where the hard work has paid off,” he says. “Now I’m just trying to think about the next notch on the strap.”

Does that mean a wedding? “Let’s enjoy the engagement a bit,” he answers with a laugh. “I just want to make sure of that [Sammy] and the baby is super comfortable and happy.”

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