Pasta lovers line up for hours to snag a seat at the no-reservation, family-owned Manhattan eatery Emilio’s Ballato — but only relatives, friends and VIPs are permitted to enter the revered restaurant’s private back room.
Executive chef Anthony Vitolo gave Pvnew a tour of the ultra-exclusive dining room, where stars including Rihanna, Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio have indulged in authentic southern Italian dishes like pasta bolognese and linguine with clams.
“The energy in the back room here at Ballato’s is crazy,” Vitolo said of the cozy space tucked inside the bustling kitchen behind red swinging doors adorned with hand-drawn “No Entry” signs.
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“It gets really loud. It gets rowdy sometimes,” he continued. “You know, everyone’s drinking wine, eating good food and just having a great time.”
The Nolita-based trattoria was originally established by John Ballato in 1956. Naples native Emilio Vitolo purchased the joint in 1985 and has since been operating the celebrated institution with his wife, Lourdes Vitolo, and their three sons: Anthony, Emilio Jr. and Mario.
“What makes Emilio’s so special is — it’s family. So food is love for us,” Anthony said.
The acclaimed cook explained that celebrities often call his family members ahead of time to request a table in the back room so they won’t be “bothered by the public.”
The hidden haven is charmingly chaotic, with wine racks and family portraits cluttering the walls and boxes filled with deliveries stacked in any free corner that isn’t occupied by a tablecloth-topped dining table.
The cuisine is served on cheerful plates from the Amalfi Coast, and gorgeous hand-painted olive oil cruets from Positano are placed at each table with a side of saucy fresh bread. Music by artists like Frank Sinatra and Frankie Valli fills the oregano-and-garlic-scented air with an old-school ambiance.
Taylor Swift famously had a girls’ night out in the back room with Blake Lively, Brittany Mahomes and Sophie Turner after the “Game of Thrones” star separated from Joe Jonas last year. Meanwhile, the “Sucker” singer is close friends with the Vitolo family and once dubbed Emilio’s Ballato one of his favorite restaurants in New York.
Al Pacino, David Beckham, Cindy Crawford and Jon Hamm have also feasted in the storied back room, though Anthony crowned Jimmy Fallon as his most memorable guest.
“Jimmy Fallon came to see me in the kitchen, and he liked the meatballs so much,” the chef recalled. “So he took a pan of meatballs of, like, 30 meatballs. He picked it up with one hand and took a photo of him trying to lick the meatballs.”
“He didn’t actually lick the meatballs,” Anthony clarified with a hearty laugh. “We just took a picture. He was pretending to lick the meatballs, so don’t worry.”
The back room has also hosted politicians like former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former President Barack Obama.
“Secret Service was everywhere,” Anthony said of Obama’s visit with daughter Malia. “And that was a crazy experience because, you know, who else can say that they got to cook for the president of the United States?”
Anthony said Obama’s security team watched his “every move” in the kitchen to make sure he “didn’t slip anything into his food.”
“There was about 12 Secret Service agents here at every exit [and] entrance,” he remembered.
Other celebrities who have wined and dined in the back room include Rob Gronkowski and his girlfriend, Camille Kostek, George Clooney, Naomi Campbell, Justin Bieber and Jerry Seinfeld. DiCaprio has also been a frequent patron and even used the back room as a meetup spot with his besties Tobey Maguire and Jonah Hill.
We’re told famous folk gravitate toward certain meals on the menu, including the classic bolognese, meatballs and spaghetti pomodoro. But those in the loop know to order the off-menu Veal Antonio special.
“The Veal Antonio is a 16-ounce center-cut veal chop,” Anthony said. “We pound it, then we panko-crust it, we fry it. It’s on top with vodka sauce, peas, prosciutto and fresh mozzarella. And then we take that and we crisp it up in the broiler.”
The dish, however, is offered on the menu at Anthony’s newly opened Fort Lauderdale, Fla., restaurant called Vitolo.
Recipes at Ballato maintain their Italian authenticity, with red sauce prepared using DOP San Marzano tomatoes grown at Anthony’s uncle’s decades-old farm in Sarno, Italy.
“One of the most important ingredients in Italian cooking is tomatoes,” Anthony said. “So what we do is, we can them, and we bring them over.”
The kitchen only serves three desserts: cheesecake, cannoli and Anthony’s favorite sweet treat, tiramisu.
“It’s got a little espresso in there, you know? You got the mascarpone, you got the cream. It’s just one of my favorite desserts to order out, but I’m very picky of where I order it. It has to be up to par,” he said.
The house wine, which features an old black-and-white photo of the Vitolo family on the bottle, is a highly requested beverage for the back room’s distinguished clientele.
“Our house wine here at Ballato’s is made in a small vineyard in Tuscany,” Anthony said. “It’s a mix between a Sangiovese and a Montepulciano, and we are the only restaurant to carry this wine. They make it specifically for us.”
We’re told that A-listers sometimes sneak in and out of the beloved back room through a top-secret exit.
“We might, maybe have a secret entrance through the back area of our restaurant,” Anthony teased. “[I] can’t really disclose where that area is, but it’s a secret entrance where they can come in where paparazzi won’t bother them.”
The culinary expert stressed that celebrities don’t get “special treatment,” though, and when the back room is full, they are seated in the main dining room with everybody else.
“We literally just can’t move people. So they just can’t get in [to the back room] that night,” Anthony said, noting that they do have celebrity clientele who don’t “mind sitting in the front room.”
Danny DeVito famously celebrated his birthday in the main room, and Fallon has also been known to sit in the front. However, Anthony and his family members make sure their famous diners maintain a sense of privacy.
“When people start taking photos of celebrities here, we throw them out,” he warned.
“It has happened a couple of times, but most of the people see my father in the front room, and he’s, you know, kind of a scary guy, manning the front doors,” he continued. “So people usually don’t like to mess around here.”
Stars like Lenny Kravitz and Emilio Jr.’s ex-girlfriend Katie Holmes have even opted to eat at outdoor dining tables when the back room and main dining room were at max capacity.
Considering the restaurant has a walk-in-only policy, there is never a guarantee of getting in — famous or not.
“People start lining up at 5 p.m. when we open for dinner,” Anthony said. “The line can get really long sometimes. People are waiting three to four hours for a table.”
Anthony believes that the elite continue coming back to his family’s restaurant because it is all about tradition and comfort.
“I think celebrities return to Ballato’s because … the food stays consistent [and] authentic,” he said. “You know, we just treat them like regular people. And they come back just because it’s, you know, the food is good and they can eat without being bothered.”
