San Bruno resident Vittorio D’Urzo in the kitchen of Trattoria Da Vittorio, his second restaurant on San Carlos’ Laurel Street. After his first restaurant in San Francisco received praise for its simple recipes and attentive service, D’Urzo is hoping to offer the same casual dining atmosphere in San Carlos.
A gleaming counter lined with wine bottles, a wood-fired pizza oven and friendly, attentive staff are just some of the ingredients that have captivated patrons of the Italian restaurant Vittorio D’Urzo has owned in San Francisco’s West Portal neighborhood for the last five years.
So in opening his second restaurant, Trattoria Da Vittorio, at 617 Laurel St. last month, D’Urzo is hoping to replicate many of the same elements that propelled his first restaurant, which shares the same name, into success. By creating a bar and casual dining spot at what was formerly two Italian restaurants, Locanda Positano and Gusto, D’Urzo is hoping to foster the warm, inviting atmosphere he remembers well from the casual restaurants, or “trattorias,” he experienced growing up in southern Italy.
For D’Urzo, preserving the right balance of attentive customer service with an informal ambiance is not unlike maintaining the simplicity of the Calabrian cooking he serves at his restaurants. Situated at the toe of Italy’s boot, the region is known for using flavorful ingredients capable of carrying sauces and dishes like homemade lasagna and eggplant Parmesan without many added spices, said D’Urzo.
“I don’t put all these peppers, spices to change the whole flavor. You eat tomato sauce, you need to eat the tomato, you need to taste the tomato,” he said. “That’s how we eat in the south of Italy — very, very simple.”
Though D’Urzo has put a lot of thought into how he will adapt elements of his San Francisco restaurant for the new location, it’s not the first he’s worked at the Laurel Street dining spot. Having been a manager at Positano when it first opened in 2011, D’Urzo knew its owner, Enzo Rosano, was planning to move the restaurant from San Carlos to Lafayette, much closer to the sister restaurant Rosano opened in Danville.
Acknowledging the many changes that have taken shape in the city’s downtown in the years since he last worked there, D’Urzo noted a large portion of the patrons who have dined at his new location since he opened its doors Jan. 29 are familiar faces from his days as a manager at Positano.
“It’s like coming back to town,” he said.
Though he had long had an interest in cooking, D’Urzo said he started his career as a police officer in Italy. It wasn’t until he moved to the United States to join family in 2001 that he was able to explore his passion for food, serving at and managing restaurants in the Bay Area and for a brief time in New York.
D’Urzo said making the leap to owning his own restaurant has convinced him how critical passion is to make it through the long hours, potential for criticism from customers and daily pressure of operating a restaurant full of some 200 people at a time.
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“Being a restaurant owner is not a job, it’s a choice of life,” he said. “You had to be made for it to be in this business.”
He said the encouragement of his wife, Lizzy D’Urzo, as well as his 5-year-old daughter Isabella D’Urzo and 2-year-old son Alessandro D’Urzo, to open another restaurant allowed him to take the plunge a second time. Knowing how difficult it was for him to leave his San Francisco restaurant any time it was full of diners in its first year, D’Urzo said he expected the first year of his new venture to be similarly hectic.
“It’s very hard for me to leave this place full,” he said, noting the time-consuming nature of being the sole owner of a restaurant. “But if it’s successful, the reward is much different.”
But despite a full schedule, D’Urzo said he’s enjoyed welcoming his and other Peninsula families to his new restaurant, which he is preparing to meet the needs of families with kids and couples looking for a place to have date night.
“I’m very happy to be back here in San Carlos. I feel at home here,” he said. “Hopefully, I meet their expectations.”
A grand opening celebration will be held 5:30 p.m. Feb. 21 at Trattoria Da Vittorio, 617 Laurel St.
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