Owner closes beloved Sicilian restaurant in Carroll Gardens after 121 years in business
CARROLL GARDENS, Brooklyn (WABC) -- A Sicilian restaurant that's made its living on simplicity, is finally saying "arrivederci" after serving the Brooklyn community for more than a century.
Just a few words out of Frank Buffa's mouth and you can tell he was born in Sicily and has lived in South Brooklyn for more than 50 years.
His neighbors know him, and Hollywood knows him, from Leonardo DiCaprio to Martin Scorsese to Sean Penn.
Buffa is the owner of Ferdinando's Focacceria in Carroll Gardens, the city's oldest Sicilian restaurant.
He has two ingredients to success: resist change and keep it simple.
"I don't make the menu like a diner," Buffa said. "You need an hour to finish it. No. You put three dishes, three fish, three meats. Simple. You can't go wrong."
There's simplicity in the drink menu as well.
"We have Italian beer, American beer, that's it," Buffa said. "Regular milk. That's when I came in this country there's only one type of milk. Regular."
And when it comes to deliveries, Buffa likes to keep that simple too.
"I told you never delivery. I never go with this company; what do you call it, Uber? And the other company Grubhub," he said. "If I put this on the phone, the phone will ring like 911."
Ferdinando's has been in business for 121 years.
Buffa took it over from his father-in-law.
When the restaurant opened, it served lunch to longshoremen, but now at 75 years old, Buffa says enough is enough.
"I work, I would say, 75 hours a week," he said. "So, now you multiply 52 years, 75 hours a week, it's a hundred years I work over here. A hundred years."
Buffa says he wants to sell the restaurant to the right buyer, but he's not selling the building.
"This is my pension. This is my kids. I have to give it to my kids," he said.
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