{"id":1112,"date":"2020-09-06T15:39:47","date_gmt":"2020-09-06T19:39:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ctdish.com\/?p=1112"},"modified":"2020-10-01T18:26:42","modified_gmt":"2020-10-01T22:26:42","slug":"geno-auriema-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ctdish.com\/?p=1112","title":{"rendered":"Geno Auriemma Interview"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Geno Auriemma expounds on his background, the restaurant business, his love of food and passion for wine, and of course, basketball.<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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[Excerpted and edited]<\/p>

[Frank Cohen]:\u00a0<\/strong>As a restaurant critic of 26 years and a UConn follower even longer, I\u2019m a big fan of yours on both counts. I also love your wit and candor.<\/em>
[Geno Auriema]:<\/strong> Thank you!<\/p>

[FC]:\u00a0<\/strong>You were born in southern Italy?
<\/em>[GA]: <\/strong>Yes, near Naples, about an hour and a half away in the mountains of Campania in the small village of Montella.<\/p>

[FC]:\u00a0<\/strong>There\u2019s a scenic biopark there I\u2019ve seen pictures of with a manmade waterfall with huge stone cubes?<\/em>
[GA]: <\/strong>Yes, there is!<\/p>

[FC]:\u00a0<\/strong>How old were you when you moved to the United States?<\/em>
[GA]: <\/strong>We left Italy in November of 1961. The crossing took about 13 days. We got to America on November 21 or 22, and I turned eight in March of 1962. We lived in Norristown, in the Philadelphia suburbs. My father worked in a factory, then my mother also got a job working in a factory.<\/p>

[FC]:\u00a0<\/strong>I liked Geno\u2019s Grille when I reviewed it for Hartford Magazine in 2014. Will it reopen?
<\/em>[GA]: <\/strong>It\u2019s permanently closed. The times, you know. We\u2019re putting all our efforts and time and energy into Caf\u00e9 Aura. We feel like that\u2019s a special place. The community has been very supportive of it, not just Manchester but the entire Hartford area. So we\u2019re devoting all of our time to that.<\/p>

[FC]:\u00a0<\/strong>It’s beautiful! Will the casino restaurants be coming back at some point?<\/em>
[GA]: <\/strong>No, the casino itself is struggling a bit, as you can see, and that was happening long before the pandemic came along. They won\u2019t be coming back, either.<\/p>

[FC]:\u00a0<\/strong>I can\u2019t believe what you did with the building. Are you able to tell me how much you put into the renovations?<\/em>
[GA]: <\/strong>[Laughs.] You know how this goes. It seems to be ongoing, whenever you do something like this. You take an old building\u20141933\u2014and you\u2019ve got to modernize it to fit today\u2019s safety requirements. It was well over three-quarters of a million dollars.<\/p>

[FC]:\u00a0<\/strong>How have you been coping with operating a restaurant in these difficult times?<\/em>
[GA]: <\/strong>We\u2019re following the protocols of 50% capacity. We\u2019ve noticed people are really appreciating the quiet and intimacy of having dinner now. We\u2019ve added a lot of plants inside\u2014they help the vibe.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\u201cThe Romans could have gone anywhere to drink wine and they always went to Campania to have the best wine.\u201d\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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[FC]:\u00a0<\/strong>Restaurants that put real effort into their wine lists offer diners an added dimension. Cavey\u2019s had a fine wine list, and it\u2019s evident you are continuing that tradition in this building.<\/em><\/p>

[GA]: <\/strong>It’s funny you bring up wine lists because that\u2019s one of my passions. Each and every week, I love finding wines, talking about good wine. We just went into a partnership, an agreement, with\u00a0John Caldwell winery<\/a>\u00a0out of Napa. He makes some of the best Cabernet and Cabernet blends in the world, and he\u2019s got an unbelievable story. He\u2019s just the most incredible guy and he\u2019s going to make a wine for Caf\u00e9 Aura exclusively.<\/p>

[FC]:\u00a0<\/strong>I find it ironic that Connecticut residents seem to prefer the foods of southern Italy but the wines of northern Italy. They really seem to be missing the boat when it comes to southern Italian wines.<\/em>
[GA]: <\/strong>Obviously, I\u2019m a huge proponent of Italian wines in general. I\u2019ve always been anxious to promote southern Italian wines in this country because I think they\u2019re underrepresented and offer great value. There are great tasting wines, really neat varietals that you don\u2019t find. They\u2019re not the Napa wines, not the Tuscan wines. Southern Italian wines have a distinct flavor to them and interesting character about them. The volcanic soil down there just produces some incredible wine. Friends of mine, in Irpinia in the mountains, had a blind tasting and the southern Italian wines scored just as high as any of the Tuscan or Piedmont wines. But no one knows about them. They\u2019re not marketed well over here. Even when you can buy them, they don\u2019t get the same recognition. I\u2019ve always thought, what a great thing for me to do as someone who was born there\u2014to help raise the profile of southern Italian wines in America.<\/p>

[FC]:\u00a0<\/strong>You have a terrific regular wine list, and then your Coach\u2019s List obviously offers greater depth.<\/em>
[GA]: <\/strong>I just had this conversation with one of our managers at Caf\u00e9 Aura. I said, you know I really want to build up our wine list and add some older vintages of some of our really good wines. We have some really great Brunellos. I would like to get some older vintages of Barolo. I love French wine and I have a ton of Bordeaux in my cellar, but that\u2019s not going to sell in our restaurant because that\u2019s not who we are. I want us to be more of an Italian and California Cab kind of restaurant.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\u201cI always make sure I have a few bottles of Taurasi \u2026 because one, I like the wine \u2026 and two, it\u2019s kind of an ode to an all-time great.\u201d\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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[FC]:\u00a0<\/strong>I love that you\u2019re so motivated to source southern Italian wines! Because the cost of land in regions like Campania and Calabria is lower, the quality-price ratio of the wines can be tremendous.<\/em>
[GA]: <\/strong>One hundred percent! Even the white wines from southern Italy. People don\u2019t realize the amazing history southern Italian wines have. Americans aren\u2019t well versed in the fact that the Romans could have gone anywhere to drink wine and they always went to Campania to have the best wine. I would love to be more involved in bringing attention to those wines. I want Caf\u00e9 Aura to be the kind of place you can go and get some of the best Italian wines at a great price.<\/p>

[FC]:\u00a0<\/strong>Oh, I have to ask\u2014did you feel like Diana Taurasi was just meant to happen given your background and the great wines from Taurasi?<\/em>
[GA]: <\/strong>Well, I\u2019ll tell you a quick story how that came about. So, being as committed to the wines as I was, and I\u2019m really recruiting her, I said, \u201cHey, your father was born in Italy, correct?\u201d And she said, \u201cYes, and then he moved to Argentina, and then to California.\u201d And I said, \u201cCan you do me a favor? Do you know if he was born in Taurasi or in southern Italy or what part of Italy?\u201d So she says, \u201cI\u2019ll find out!\u201d And it turns out he was from the town of Taurasi. Because as you may know, back in the day if you came over to this country and you didn\u2019t have proper documentation, then whatever town you were from became your last name. So when I went to Diana\u2019s house to recruit her, that\u2019s what we talked about\u2014Taurasi wine and their heritage. I told them Taurasi is about 40 minutes from where I was born. So wine is how I got to learn more about them and their family and the connection of them having been born right near. So now I always make sure I have a few bottles of Taurasi in my cellar and that\u2019s why we carry it on our menu at Caf\u00e9 Aura. Because, one, I like the wine, it\u2019s emblematic of what is good about southern Italian wines, and two, it\u2019s kind of an ode to an all-time great.<\/p>

[FC]:\u00a0<\/strong>Anyway, I hate to stop talking about wine, but I guess we\u2019d better talk about the restaurant. How did it come about that you ended up taking over Cavey\u2019s?<\/em>
[GA]: <\/strong>Well, because I live only a few miles from Cavey\u2019s, there were so many opportunities for me to go to dinner there. I really enjoyed the atmosphere and the food. Steve Cavagnaro obviously was a great chef and a wonderful host, and we got to know each other a little bit. I kept saying to my wife, someday we should look into this place when Steve doesn\u2019t want to do this anymore. From what Steve said, there wasn\u2019t anyone in the family that had any interest in being involved in the restaurant. So when the time came and Steve indicated he was ready to get out, I thought it was a natural for us. It was so close by, and I felt that the area certainly would support something like that, but it just couldn\u2019t stay the way it was. We obviously had to make a lot of changes in order for it to be successful in today\u2019s world of dining.<\/p>

[FC]:\u00a0<\/strong>Yes, it really was an old world experience when you ate downstairs at Cavey\u2019s. I love the restaurant now.<\/em>
[GA]: <\/strong>You know, the other thing, because of the way the pandemic has played out and the protocols of 50% capacity, we\u2019ve noticed that people are really appreciating the quiet and the intimacy of having dinner here. In the beginning I had said I want to create a real vibe, you know, the kind of restaurant you have in New York where you can feel the energy in the place, and that was really great, but now, because of all that has happened, and because we\u2019ve added a lot of plants and dividers, the atmosphere is even better than it was. I don\u2019t see us going all the way back to what we were before. I like the fact that two people can come to the restaurant and have a somewhat intimate experience while having dinner and yet still feel the energy of the bar and whatever else is going on.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\u201cErminio loves to be creative and to experiment\u2014and we\u2019re the beneficiaries of that.\u201d\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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[FC]:\u00a0<\/strong>What I\u2019m noticing, as I take the table tour all around the state, is that on the one hand you want restaurants to thrive, but on the other hand you can enjoy places that were so packed they were almost unpleasant now that they\u2019re providing a quieter and more reserved experience. And I have observed two contrasting approaches taken by restaurants during this pandemic: some are trying to rush people in and rush them back out so they can get the tables turned over, while others seem to take the approach that \u201cwe\u2019re a high-end restaurant and we realize that if folks stay longer and spend more it\u2019s okay not to try to turn the table over two or three times in an evening.\u201d<\/em>
[GA]: <\/strong>Yeah, I agree with that. A lot of people are not going to want to spend two-and-a-half or three hours in a place\u2014that\u2019s not going to happen. That\u2019s one reason I thought the French restaurant downstairs became a difficult venture, because there wasn\u2019t just that level of commitment to having an incredible dining experience anymore; most people are not going to want to do that. The idea is a little more space, take your time, but I also know you\u2019re going to leave in a reasonable time and we\u2019re going to get another couple in here. So maybe you do get a turnover once, but you\u2019re not trying to push people out and get two or three or four table turnings. Conversely, you\u2019re not going to have people sitting there for four hours. I think it\u2019s a delicate balance that I hope we have found.<\/p>

[FC]:\u00a0<\/strong>Yes, the hospitality seemed great to me. How did you connect with executive chef Erminio Conte, whom I interviewed a few days ago along with your son-in-law and director of operations Todd Stigliano?<\/em>
[GA]: <\/strong>Well, you know it\u2019s funny, we were looking for a chef and we began to make some inquiries, and I even said, \u201cHey, let\u2019s go to Italy and find a young kid.\u201d But it didn\u2019t seem practical, so we started asking around, and we had this company that specialized in Italian restaurants and chefs, so we said, \u201cAlright, let\u2019s bring a couple of people in.\u201d So we did, we had them cook for us, and Erminio\u2019s personality, his worldly experience, the many different types of dining venues he\u2019s been a part of, he seemed the perfect fit for us. And it\u2019s turned out to be as good, if not better, than we thought, because the people who come in, they all comment the same way: \u201cHey, I met your chef, and he\u2019s so delightful. He came out and he checked on us.\u201d You can sit back there and cook and be a technician, or you can come out all the time and be the life of the party, but to be able to balance things and do both\u2014that\u2019s a real talent!<\/p>

[FC]:\u00a0<\/strong>I have to say I was blown away by the swordfish. Your chef obviously has creativity and a willingness to try things. I mean, \u201cwhite livornese sauce\u201d doesn\u2019t seem to exist anywhere on the Internet except at your restaurant, although I understand what that means, but I told him it was one of the great fish accompaniments I have ever had.<\/em>
[GA]: <\/strong>Yes, you\u2019re right, the way he\u2019s been able to complement fishes has been really a huge hit with our customers. And they appreciate that they\u2019re going to get something a little bit different here. I\u2019m trying to get him to do some easy things\u2014\u201cHow about some staples?\u201d And he\u2019s like, \u201cWell you know, everyone has that.\u201d And I say to him, the reason everyone has that is because it\u2019s good, but Erminio loves to be creative and to experiment\u2014and we\u2019re the beneficiaries of that.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\u201cI want to source out a few bottles of southern Italian wine \u2026 so you can come to my restaurant and I can say, \u2018Here\u2019s a taste of my background.\u2019\u201d\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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[FC]:\u00a0<\/strong>I\u2019m trying to remember, do you have a veal Milanese on the menu?<\/em>
[GA]: <\/strong>Yeah, we did, but we really weren\u2019t selling a lot of it, so I told him, \u201cChef, I want veal Marsala.\u201d And I love veal Milanese, don\u2019t get me wrong, that\u2019s one of my favorite dishes and I even make it at home, but I said, \u201cChef, I want a veal Marsala.\u201d \u201cAh, but\u2026\u201d And I insisted, \u201cI want a veal Marsala.\u201d You know, we went through a couple of different versions of it, and we found one that I really love!<\/p>

[FC]:\u00a0<\/strong>I didn\u2019t get to try it, but I\u2019m going to have to come back for it. I love a really good veal Marsala. It can be done badly, but when it\u2019s done well, it sings to you.<\/em>
[GA]: <\/strong>Yes, it can be done badly, and I\u2019ve seen it done badly, but when it\u2019s done well, oh my God, it\u2019s absolutely spectacular.<\/p>

[FC]:\u00a0<\/strong>I was fortunate in 2003 to spend some time with Luigi Veronelli, Italy\u2019s leading food and wine expert and a champion of small producers, a man who repeatedly took on big corporate interests. He died a year later. There\u2019s a cooking school on a small island in Venice now named for him. Did you ever get to meet him?<\/em><\/p>

[GA]: <\/strong>No, but I can\u2019t say enough about the people of Italy. I just feel bad sometimes because it\u2019s such a difficult place if you\u2019re trying to manage that country and you\u2019re trying to manage its people, who are not the easiest people to get to agree on anything. But when Italians put their mind to food or wine or music or culture, nobody in the world does it better. Every time I go over there, I learn something new and I find something more to appreciate.<\/p>

[FC]:\u00a0<\/strong>So I saw you brought the Cavey\u2019s sign inside in tribute. I thought that was really classy.<\/em>
[GA]: <\/strong>Yeah, we also left some doors that were there, some window trimmings, some wood trimmings downstairs. I wanted there to be kind of a nod to the heritage and legacy that Steve created.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\u201cWhen Italians put their mind to food or wine or music or culture, nobody in the world does it better.\u201d\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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[FC]:\u00a0<\/strong>Sorry if my questions jump all over the map, but the Puglia Rosso you have, is it Primitivo, Negro Amaro, a blend?<\/em>
[GA]: <\/strong>It\u2019s Primitivo. And that\u2019s the other thing I want to do. I want to go to Italy and I want to source out a few bottles of southern Italian wine so you can come to my restaurant and I can say, \u201cHere\u2019s a taste of my background.\u201d<\/p>

[FC]:\u00a0<\/strong>There\u2019s really no end to wine, is there? It\u2019s like food\u2014it\u2019s a near-infinite universe.<\/em>
[GA]: <\/strong>Oh yeah, And every wine has a story, every wine has a legend to it.<\/p>

[FC]:\u00a0<\/strong>Every <\/em>good wine anyway.<\/em>
[GA]: <\/strong>[Laughing] Yes, every good wine.<\/p>

[FC]:\u00a0<\/strong>I know a producer named\u00a0<\/em>Barberani in Umbria\u00a0that makes a botrytised yet dry white wine called \u201cLuigi e Giovanna\u201d that I think you\u2019d love. It can hold its own with high-end Burgundies.<\/em>
[GA]: <\/strong>I\u2019ve really fallen in love with very good white wine. I find myself drinking more and more of it. And not just those white wines that you drink in summer because they\u2019re seasonal, but I mean all winter long. Steve and I used to talk about wine all the time. There are lots of great wines, but when you get a great white Burgundy, boy is it just something!<\/p>

[FC]:\u00a0<\/strong>The Luigi e Giovanna will get you into that kind of magic and complexity. It\u2019s pretty special.<\/em>
[GA]: <\/strong>I\u2019ve got to find out about all these wines. I\u2019m a sponge when it comes to these things.<\/p>

[FC]:\u00a0<\/strong>As a restaurant critic, I was always troubled by reviewers who acted as if they knew everything. It bothered me so much, because when you believe you know everything, you\u2019ve stopped learning. With your thirst for learning, I bet you would have made a great restaurant critic.<\/em>
[GA]: <\/strong>[Laughs] Well, you know I\u2019m like that as a basketball coach. I always feel like I know a lot about the game, but there\u2019s still a lot about the game that I want to learn, that I need to learn, that would help me be even better, and to me that\u2019s the whole point, Why would you ever stop learning more about your craft? Never stop! A doctor never stops learning about the craft. A stone mason never stops learning how to cut that piece of stone so it fits perfectly in that fireplace. An archaeologist never stops. A scientist never stops.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\u201cThis group of freshmen is a good group. I\u2019m excited to see what they can do.\u201d\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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[FC]:\u00a0<\/strong>How have you been managing your athletes in terms of the pandemic? Are they basically in a bubble?<\/em>
[GA]: <\/strong>Yeah, I mean right now they\u2019re in school, so they\u2019re in what we call a \u201cpod.\u201d There are apartments where they live, and right now they pretty much stay within the apartments where they live, but little by little we\u2019re going to be putting them together so that they interact with each other so we have the entire team working out together. But because we don\u2019t have a plan in terms of when are we playing, when exactly is the first game, what is the schedule, because no one knows any of that, we don\u2019t know exactly how to proceed other than try to do a little bit here, a little bit there.<\/p>

[FC]:\u00a0<\/strong>Do you think the Big 10 & Pac 10 conferences have taken the right approach for the fall, or do you think the schools that are still trying to put on football are taking the right approach?<\/em>
[GA]: <\/strong>Well, I just had this conversation this morning with someone and it ended up being him saying, \u201cWell listen, the Big 10 talked to a bunch of high-level scientists and doctors and they said no, you can\u2019t play football, and then the Southeast Conference said we talked to our people that are experts and they said we can<\/em> play football.\u201d So what are the rest of us supposed to think? I don\u2019t know. I have no idea. I\u2019m hoping it all works out. I\u2019m hoping that those people who chose to say, \u201cHey, let\u2019s go for it,\u201d I\u2019m hoping it works out for them, I really do, because that would be a good sign for the rest of us.<\/p>

[FC]:\u00a0<\/strong>Having been born in Ann Arbor and having attended law school there, I root for two schools: Michigan football and men\u2019s basketball and UConn men\u2019s and women\u2019s basketball.<\/em>
[GA]: <\/strong>There are not too many places that are better than University of Michigan.<\/p>

[FC]:\u00a0<\/strong>Michigan did lure away UConn\u2019s previous athletic director, Warde Manuel.<\/em>
[GA]: <\/strong>Yes, they did.<\/p>

[FC]:\u00a0<\/strong>Do you still have a good relationship with him?<\/em>
[GA]: <\/strong>Yes, amazing. He\u2019s a good personal friend. He\u2019s very nice, a great guy.<\/p>

[FC]:\u00a0<\/strong>It looks like you have a tremendous class coming in. You must be very excited.<\/em>
[GA]: <\/strong>Yeah, this group of freshmen is a good group. I\u2019m excited to see what they can do. I\u2019m really excited for them.<\/p>

[FC]:\u00a0<\/strong>I know that nobody gets a free pass with you, they all have to earn their way on, but you must be stoked about Paige Buechers.<\/em>
[GA]: <\/strong>I am, I\u2019m excited.<\/p>

[FC]:\u00a0<\/strong>I guess you were not doing the Olympics this time around, you had stopped after the last two, right?<\/em>
[GA]: <\/strong>Yes, the travel and the time commitment\u2014eight years is a very long time. I felt like it was somebody else\u2019s turn.<\/p>

[FC]:\u00a0<\/strong>In this current difficult political climate, do you feel added need to guide the strong young women you coach? Or do you feel in some ways that the new generation coaches you a bit? How does that interplay work?<\/em>
[GA]: <\/strong>I think it\u2019s a little bit of both. I feel like I have an obligation to coach them\u2014that\u2019s why they came to Connecticut. They came here to play for me, to see and to learn, and it\u2019s my job to teach them. At the same time, I\u2019m able to learn a little bit from them each year. It\u2019s obviously a different era, they\u2019re a different generation, and each group has its own characteristics, and like in wine or in my restaurant, I want to be better at what I do. Every year, I want to be better. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s ever been a time since I\u2019ve been at Connecticut that the following year we did exactly the same thing we did the year before. We just don\u2019t do that. That\u2019s the same with the kids I\u2019ve had every year\u2014I get different kinds of kids, and I have to learn how to get the most out of them, each and every one of them.<\/p>

[FC]:\u00a0<\/strong>I know you have to go. I so appreciate all the time you\u2019ve given me. Thank you kindly.<\/em>
[GA]: <\/strong>Thank you!<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tCaf\u00e9 Aura\u2014Connecticut Needs Its Heroes Now More Than Ever\t\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tRead Frank Cohen\u2019s Review of Caf\u00e9 Aura\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tClick Here\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Auriemma expounds on his background, the restaurant business, his love of food and passion for wine, and of course, 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