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Restaurant Serves Fine Dining Without The Pretense, Price

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By TONY HOLT, Hernando Today

Published: October 15, 2007

SPRING HILL - Gennaro Castiglione didn't re-enter the restaurant business to become a star. He achieved star status a long time ago.

He was an accelerated student at a prestigious, New England-based culinary school. He accepted his first job in France, furthered his career in New York and co-opened a Virginia Beach restaurant that served celebrities and earned sterling reviews.

Today, he is the co-owner and chef of Cucina Gennaro, an affordable fine-dining restaurant in Spring Hill that has been open for 10 months.

'I love to be out on the floor,' Castiglione said. 'I check every table to make sure they love my food ... I work the line here.'

In fact, he is the line. Castiglione is the only chef in his 42-seat restaurant. He works Monday through Saturday. Fine dining is his life.

Actually, 'fine dining' is a misnomer. There is no number next to a dollar sign on the menu that reminds you of a high-priced restaurant.

Instead of Mario Lanza and Placido Domingo blaring from the speakers, you hear Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. You're not hearing opera - the music favored by upscale Italian restaurants - but big band crooners, the working class music of its time.

A dinner for two can cost anywhere from $19.95 to $24.95 - not something found at most restaurants that specialize in veal and seafood.

'We do fine dining-quality, but we don't want the stuffiness of fine dining,' Castiglione said. 'That can make people feel uncomfortable. You're not sure what fork to use. You're thinking about the proper way to drink wine.

'You don't eat like that in your house,' he continued. 'We don't do that here.'

There is a small lobby area where people pay their checks, but inside, the ambiance hits you immediately.

The main portion of the restaurant is dimly lit. The music is low, and there are no more than two servers working at once. It definitely has the look and sound of a quaint restaurant. It is the typical best-secret-in-town kind of eatery.

Not much is found inside the refrigerator or freezer, which means mostly everything is made from scratch - even the house salad dressing. The menu is mostly made up of four categories - pasta, poultry, veal and seafood. There also are a few eggplant entrees, as well as salad and appetizer choices.

'It's not a pizza parlor,' Castiglione said. 'I'm not a pizza man, I'm a chef.'

He also is conscientious about cholesterol and saturated fats. While learning the ropes in Evian, France, he worked at a restaurant that also was a casino and a health spa.

'We took the French cuisine and made it healthy,' he said.

His cream sauces consist only of a touch of dairy cream, and very little butter is used in the cooking pan. The portions are sizable, but not like what is normally served at those deep-dish franchise restaurants.

Also, nothing is fried at Cucina Gennaro and there is not a heat lamp in sight. Everything is sauteed, roasted or grilled - whether it's the fillet mignon or the rack of lamb.

On every table, customers have French bread crostinis and tomato bruschetta, which normally are charged to customers at other restaurants. Even the spices that go in the olive oil dipping sauce are selected and mixed by Castiglione.

All of the meat is butchered by the chef. Nothing is pre-cut. In fact, no one else does anything to the food. It's all done by the big boss.

Castiglione's lifelong boss also is his business partner. Sally Castiglione, 60, is the co-owner and hostess. She decided to roll up her sleeves and assist her son after her husband died last year.

The Castigliones are a close-knit family. When his parents moved to Spring Hill, Gennaro Castiglione, 41, did not wait long to follow them, even though he had a successful business in upstate New York.

He became the executive chef at GlenLakes Golf and Country Club from 1999 to 2002. He got out of the restaurant business for a few years to work in the private sector with his brother.

He took some time off to help care for his ailing father. When it came time for him to return to his job, he didn't go back. Castiglione wanted to run a restaurant again.

It would be difficult to find a place with such a high percentage of regular customers.

'People who eat here do so faithfully,' he said.

CUCINA GENNARO

WHERE: 2410 Commercial Way, Spring Hill

CALL: (352) 688-4442

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