VIA CASSIA
(Portrait of a restaurant via an interview with Kat O’Dell for Bloomberg)
The restaurant name + is it part of a hotel ?
The name of the restaurant is Via Cassia. Via Cassia is the name of the ancient Roman road that ran through the village we lived in for the past 4 years in San Casciano Val di Pesa, 20 minutes south of Florence in Tuscany. We are not part of a hotel, though we are located next door to The Howard.
where is it/what part of upstate ?
214 Warren St. Hudson, NY
when did it open ?
March 14, 2024
What’s the concept ?
Local Trattoria
Who are the operators/chef ?
Husband and wife team Gaetano and Meigan Arnone
Do they have other restaurants/what’s their background ?
This is our first restaurant. We both had 10 years in New York City and made a move to Tuscany during the pandemic. 4 years later we returned to the Hudson Valley to open Via Cassia.
Gaetano has a long history working for Babbo Ristorante - 9 years, starting as Garde Manger working his way up to Chef de Cuisine. In 2019 he was made Executive Chef and took over a sister restaurant, Otto. Early on Meigan also worked the front of house at Babbo - coat check, reservations, hostess, and Maitre'd.
In 2020 we made a move to Italy and spent 4 years working with the Corsini Family at Villa Le Corti which is together with Principe Corsini and FICO vineyards in the Chianti Classico wine region of Tuscany. Gaetano ran a private restaurant in the 400 year old kitchen at Villa Le Corti while Meigan was the Creative Director for the Villa and Winery. She helped them build a boutique retail space, created content for all of their social platforms, and helped them develop new marketing and communication materials for all aspects of their hospitality.
How many seats ?
Via Cassia has 15 tables with 38 seats in the dining room. Additionally, the bar has 12 seats, and the terrace (when in season) has an additional 12 seats.
We have a total of 62 seats in the high (outdoor) season.
Is there a bar, if so how many seats + what kind of drinks served there ?
Yes, we have a U shaped bar with 12 seats, a small curated list of cocktails made predominately with Italian spirits, an Italian wine list that includes a rare full portfolio of the vineyard we worked with in Tuscany, Principe Corsini and FICO wine.
indoor or outdoor or both ?
Both. We have a seasonal terrace in the front of the restaurant.
How do you describe the design ?
Simple. Neutral. Rustic. Quite a few nods to the historic kitchen Gaetano cooked in at Villa Le Corti with decorative items we sourced in Italy. People tell us all the time that they love the lighting in the restaurant which is low and ambient, with candlelit tables.
Signature dishes ?
We are a pasta heavy restaurant, some of which you will recognize immediately if you've spent any time in Italy - Bucatini all'Amatriciana, Aglio Olio, Cacio e Pepe.. Gaetano makes all the pasta by hand in-house. The menu also includes antipasti, salumi, formaggi, secondi, contorni, and a sought after short list of dolce made by our pastry chef Emerson McCafferty.
What else should I know that makes this place stand out ?
We knew pretty quickly that we were never going to be able to make the restaurant look like Italy without crossing into a heavily themed aesthetic, so our way of bringing Italy to Hudson was with the 'idea' of a Italian trattoria - a simple dining room, genuine hospitality, recognizable regional Italian pastas, a relevant Italian wine list, and personal experience.
Our most recent 4 years in Italy was spent in a type of hospitality that you don't get working in restaurants. Gaetano cooked face to face for a different set of private guests every day in a 400 year old historic kitchen setting that is usually roped off and preserved for a museum. Meigan, who has a degree in photography and worked in interior design for the last couple years in New York City, had free range to absorb the culture of Villa Le Corti and translate it into a visual reputation with the intent to draw in post-pandemic interest from around the world.
This has all translated beautifully into Via Cassia. It's in the employee culture we've created, the hospitality we continue to refine, it's in how we 'do and don't' use social media, it’s threaded onto our wine list with the tuscan portfolio of Principe Corsini and FICO wines that guests can actually taste as part of our personal experience in Italy, and it's in the surprise on the guests' faces seeing the chef (Gaetano) unexpectedly delivering dishes to tables and wanting to know if the guests are enjoying themselves. We have found a beautiful way to weave together 10 New York City years of building a career based in technique, with 4 years of 'no creative limitations' in Tuscany, to create Via Cassia here in Hudson. And we are very happy with the result!
