A North Beach Original: Sotto Mare's Gigi FiorucciGigi Fiorucci in front of Sotto Mare, the restaurant he opened in 2007. | Photo: Joe Bonadio/Hoodline
Joe Bonadio
Published on May 25, 2017

When Gigi Fiorucci opened Sotto Mare at 552 Green St. in 2007, he helped make North Beach a destination neighborhood again. Serving fresh seafood, the veteran restaurateur put an Italian stamp on the menu that fit right into travelers' expectations.

Born in Marche, Italy and raised in North Beach, Fiorucci had already opened and sold 12 restaurants by the time he opened Sotto Mare. For him, the Green St. restaurant was a homecoming: the building was the site of his first place, the Montclair. Fiorucci now owns the building and keeps an apartment upstairs.

While Fiorucci has long said Sotto Mare would be his last restaurant, he told us he “didn’t want to end it on 13.” Last year he bought a place on Mt. Shasta, which his son runs.

We recently caught up with Fiorucci right next to Sotto Mare, sold to longtime friends of the family in 2014.

When did you first get into the business?

When I was 15, I started washing dishes at Caesar’s, learned to cook there. School wasn’t my priority. I’d get an F in gym, because my shift was from 2-10pm, and gym started at 2pm.

(Editor’s note: Caesar’s, which Fiorucci subsequently bought a stake in, operated on Bay Street for 56 years).

And how'd you end up at the Montclair?

There's this article in the paper: the Board of Health closed seven restaurants in North Beach. At the Montclair, it was because the third floor was full of boxes, a fire violation. There were rats and mice, a big mess.

So they're doing 150, 200 lunches every day. The day after the article? No one came. One of the owners was Lorenzo Pici, and his partners turned on him. Said this is your fault, and decided to close.

Where’d you get the dough to buy the place?

Three fathers. They bought it for us! My father, this guy Joe Catorelli, and this guy Louie Commisso. They used to play cards together over at Portofino. They got the money together and bought it for a song, and we went in to work.

Wow.

One of the partners said he’d stay for a year. Said, “I’ll teach you the business, but you guys stay partners with my brother.” So they sold us the shares.

And we brought it back, did a hell of a job. Within 3 years, it was running big-time.

Is it true you used to do 1,000 covers a day?

Oh yeah, all the time. It was huge, upstairs we could seat 250 in the big room. Weddings were always around, and we had a couple more rooms, and downstairs there was a room…

Why did you sell the place?

After a while, it just wasn’t happening.

What do you mean?

Two of the partners didn’t like each other. Old friends, but they couldn’t get along. It didn’t work out, and that was it! (laughs) After that, I went to Caesar’s and they sold me a share.

But there, the two oldest guys, we had to do everything they said. There was no consideration for what I thought. So I said to hell with it.

That’s after the Montclair. How long did you own the Montclair?

Well, in ’67 I got out of the army, and we came here. I think we left in ’71 or ’72.

Maybe five years?

Yeah, something like that. From there, every five years, I’d sell a restaurant, me and my wife would take two years off. Take off, come back, find another place.

You were at Caesar’s five years too?

Yeah, five years. Twice. When they called me the second time, they said “we’ll listen to you now, we gotta change.” Then I bought Maye’s Oyster House.

Hold on. What happened in between Caesar’s, and [your second stint at] Caesar's?

I’m trying to remember that right now. I had a deli out on Clement, it was called Cafe Fiorucci. 23rd and Clement.

And how did you end up opening Sotto Mare?

Giovanni [Toracca] is the one who made it happen, he’s a good businessman. We bought it with an option, whatever that is. We went in, started working.

When we got to the point when the option was coning up, we were almost done with the thing. The bank said hey, how much do you need? Boom.

I didn’t know I was going to put fish in there, I didn’t know anything. It just happened. The first two years, it's a critical thing about restaurants—you better make sure you got the rent. Every time I open, I make sure I got one year’s rent.

But anyway, then this computer stuff came in, and I mean this crowd just showed up. The Asian [tourists] would come in and take pictures. Then some of the airline people came in. Next thing you know, we’re in the paper in Japan—Sotto Mare!

Not bad.

GF: Yeah! And I was all the time out front, “Hey, have a glass of wine, relax.” I schmoozed ‘em. And I can do that, I know how. Be nice to people, tell my jokes, I know how to make people feel good.