The chef-owner behind Manhattan's celebrity-magnet Emilio's Ballato is bringing his red sauce touch to Long Island. Anthony Vitolo is opening a new restaurant called Vitolo-Sorrentino with chef Salvatore Sorrentino inside the former ITA Kitchen space in Garden City, with a late-October opening planned.
Vitolo, who serves as executive chef and family owner of Emilio's Ballato, described the celebrity-packed Houston Street institution as the base he'll continue running alongside his father Emilio and brothers Mario and Emilio Jr. even as he takes on the new Nassau County project, according to the New York Post. The 35-year-old, who was raised in Wantagh and now lives in Smithtown, plans to split his time between Garden City and New York City once the new restaurant is up and running.
Emilio’s Ballato has roots on Houston Street dating to 1956, when John Ballato opened the restaurant; Emilio Vitolo took it over in the 1990s and gave it the family name. Anthony and his brothers were all trained as chefs, and Anthony has become closely associated with the restaurant’s kitchen and its less-publicized dishes, including the veal Antonio. That history makes the Garden City venture an extension of a family restaurant legacy, but with Anthony taking the lead alongside a new partner. The Michelin Guide’s history of the restaurant traces that evolution.
The former ITA Kitchen space will get a complete overhaul before it reopens, with the Post reporting the new dining room will seat around 120 people and feature a chic red-velvet-style interior. Sorrentino, who previously sold his ownership shares in ITA Kitchen, discarded a few thousand dollars' worth of old furnishings as part of clearing out the space, per the same account.
From Late-Night Idea to Pop-Up Proof of Concept
Vitolo said he and Sorrentino decided to go into business together while having a drink at 2 in the morning, an origin story that traces back further than that single conversation. The concept for Vitolo-Sorrentino actually originated after a pop-up idea at the shuttered ITA Kitchen location, and the two chefs became friends years later.
An August pop-up event, which the article notes came together after just one day of planning, turned out to be a success, featuring staff from both chefs' restaurants. That night's menu included chicken scarpariello wings and a thin pounded vitello antonio veal chop. Vitolo said the staff working that night wanted to make the pop-up permanent.
Sorrentino said the successful event convinced him to proceed with the full restaurant. A second pop-up followed with Dario's of West Hempstead, this time featuring tagliatelle bolognese and fried capellini amatriciana — both dishes now confirmed for the Vitolo-Sorrentino menu, alongside Ballato's meatballs and a chicken cordon bleu cacio e pepe that reportedly was a hit at a tasting.
Sorrentino brings a long restaurant résumé of his own to the partnership. His former restaurant group describes him as ITA Kitchen’s founder and managing partner, with more than 20 years in the industry; he began as a teenage dishwasher and worked his way through the kitchen. His parents, the biography says, owned more than 10 restaurants. That family-business background gives the new project a second lineage in restaurant work beyond Vitolo’s connection to Ballato. ITA Kitchen’s biography of Sorrentino recounts his career path.
A Gold Coast Crowd and a Mateo's Connection
Vitolo said the plan is for a classy Italian sit-down restaurant, and he anticipates A-listers from Long Island's Gold Coast will visit once it opens. That expectation isn't out of nowhere — Emilio's Ballato's clientele has reportedly included Taylor Swift, Aaron Judge, Barack Obama, Jaxson Dart, John Lennon and Andy Warhol, per the Post's reporting.
Garden City will not be Vitolo’s first restaurant venture beyond Manhattan. He opened Vitolo, a separate family-operated Italian restaurant inside the Conrad Fort Lauderdale Beach, in late 2023, and later described dividing his workweek between that kitchen and Ballato. The Florida restaurant is a useful precedent for the logistics he now faces: running a namesake restaurant while staying involved at the family’s New York institution. An interview with Vitolo about the Florida opening details how he split his time between the two.
The two chefs' history runs deeper than restaurant rows. Vitolo worked as a barback at Mateo's in Bellmore, a restaurant owned by Sorrentino's family, where Sorrentino himself was tasked with running the salads. Vitolo's family also has its own tie to the Garden City space: they reportedly spent Mother's Day at another ITA Kitchen location.
Before restaurants, Vitolo had been set to play defensive line for Hofstra University in 2010, but the school cut its football program that same year, sending his path in a different direction. Vitolo said Sorrentino is currently his only partner in the new restaurant, and for now, Vitolo-Sorrentino stands as the clearest sign yet that the family behind one of Manhattan's most star-studded dining rooms is putting down roots on Long Island.
