Nino Pernetti
Caffe Abbracci

The Art of Hospitality

“What I do is an art. A good chef, good hostess, good management – that’s not what makes a restaurant. I like to follow the old European tradition: Le patron est toujours à la porte – The owner is always at the door. That’s what makes a restaurant great.” – Nino Pernetti
By Annette Wright

He has traveled the globe. He speaks multiple languages besides perfect English and his native Italian ­ Spanish, German, French and even a few phrases in Farsi. He quotes Freud and Dr. Laura Slesinger. He has run marathons, played competitive tennis, and swims. He owns an antique shop filled with art nouveau, art deco and Venetian glass objets d’art. Nino Pernetti, owner of the successful Caffe Abbracci, is a Renaissance man, and a consummate restaurateur. Greeting every customer as he would greet personal friends, the suave and elegant Pernetti is at once gracious and down-to-earth.

A successful businessman who has always conducted his affairs according to the sportsman’s rules of fair play, he is also a strict and generous mentor, who set the highest standards of service and quality for an entire generation of restaurateurs. Today, when opening their new establishment with the knowledge acquired at Abbracci, most of the “Nino Pernetti/Abbracci graduates,” make sure to invoke their work with Nino, and emulate his methods and techniques.

“You can teach methods and techniques,” says Pernetti, “but you can’t teach sensibility. You have it, or you don’t. What I do, is an art. A good chef, good hostess, good management ­ that’s not what makes a restaurant. I like to follow the old European tradition: Le patron est toujours à la porte ­ The owner is always at the door. That’s what makes a restaurant great.”

Pernetti also follows a simple formula for success. “The four Ps: passion, perseverance, possibility and Pernetti” have guided him through his career and his life.

Traveling the globe
Born in the Lake District, outside Venice, Pernetti grew up in a large Italian family with seven brothers and a sister. Summers in Lake Garda meant waterskiing with his friends, until one of them complained that he couldn’t ski because he had to help out at his father’s bar. The 12-year-old Pernetti showed a knack for the work ­ customers loved his flamboyant nature ­ and serving espresso to the afternoon crowd became the beginning of a spiraling career.

Pernetti’s travelogue began immediately upon graduation from the hotel school Villa Alba, in Gardone Riviera in Italy. His first job, in Milan, gave way to a promotion to a position in Venice, then in Hanover, Germany. Pernetti, who began as a chef, yearned for the limelight ­working on the floor rather than behind the scene. His next move propelled him to the upper echelon in hotel management.

“I felt like Christopher Columbus embarking on an adventure,” says Pernetti as he fondly reminisced about his early days. Not a compass, just luck, and his ineffably gallant way with people, drove the young Pernetti to attract the attention of the international set.

From Germany he went to England. There a wealthy patron asked him if he would like to work in the Bahamas. That was Juan Trippe, founder of Pan Am, and owner of InterContinental Hotels. In Eleuthera, Pernetti was serving the who’s who of politics and society ­ Kennedy, Nixon, the Shah of Iran’s son, the Aga Khan, and countless CEOs. But to him, they were just people. “I treated everyone the same. I was equally pleasant to all of my customers,” says Pernetti who, at the age of 21, was promoted to maître d’. One day, Trippe himself approached Pernetti: “Nino, I’d like to take you into my company, The InterContinental,” Pernetti recalls Trippe saying.

Young and naive about big business and geography, Pernetti thought nothing of interviewing at the Pan Am building in New York. He got hired, and immediately was off to Kabul, Afghanistan, before he even knew where that country was.

His international appointments, working for the InterContinental and the Sheraton, continued to span the globe: Africa, Korea, Mexico, Malaysia, Belgium... A major turning point came when he was lured to the Holiday Inn International as vice president of food and beverage operations for Central America, South American and Mexico ­ 18 hotels in all, with an office in Miami and headquarters in Memphis.

It didn’t take long before Pernetti was smitten with Miami. “I loved Miami ­ the sun, the beaches, the Latin flavors, the well-organized disorganization.” While there, he patronized several successful Italian restaurants. It gave him food for thought. “I believed I could be successful in the restaurant business because I am a product of the business and felt I could do better,” Pernetti explained.

He cut his teeth in the Miami restaurant scene with the opening of Cafe Tanino, and an additional two restaurants in partnership with Tommy Billante’s corporation. He quickly realized that it was impossible to run all three restaurants as he felt they should be run. In 1985 he ventured out on his own and opened Cafe Baci in Coral Gables. The success of the restaurant was staggering. After three years, Pernetti began to look for a larger location with an adjoining bar. In 1989, Caffe Abbracci was born.

On a recent, busy lunch hour at Caffe Abbracci, Nino Pernetti sat down with South Florida Gourmet to recount his amazing career history.

The South Florida Gourmet: What makes the success of Caffe Abbracci?
NP: I believe in giving customers value for their money. I like an all-around good product ­ service, attention, and food. I like simplicity. Italian food is simplicity. Our food is not the best, not the worst, but it is consistently good, based on good ingredients, fresh food. That’s it.

SFG: How would you describe Caffe Abbracci’s ambiance?
NP: Miami is different from any other city in the United States. Because of the tropical climate, you have to blend casual with elegance. I can’t ask people to wear a coat and tie. Plus, with its Latin population, there is a sense of informality. So, I don’t want to have a rigid etiquette.

SFG: You are resisting the temptation to open more restaurants.
NP: I run my race my way and I don’t look who is behind me. I sold Baci because I couldn’t handle two restaurants. I couldn’t dedicate the time to make what I wanted them to be. Yes, at one time in my career, I was running 18 hotels at once ­ but the way I wanted my restaurant to be ­ I’ve got to be here. I want my restaurant to reflect my personality.

SFG: Who were your mentors?
NP: My mentors were the people I hated most, but I had the most respect for. One man in particular, Claude Gautier. He was right all the time, and made everybody feel it. He was exacting, demanding. I thought he hated me. Then one day he asked me to come with him to Brussels. I was in shock. Then I thought, “I must be doing something right!”

SFG: You’ve become a mentor yourself. Many of the people who have opened Italian restaurants in Miami came from the school of Pernetti; Oggi, Prima Pasta, Trattoria Luna, Domenico. What are you teaching them?
NP: I am an owner who believes in presence management. I’m on top of my employees. A well-trained person is the best thing you can have. These people who have worked with me learned to handle the door, how to greet and talk to customers. They still call me to ask for advice. I like that. I’m proud to see them do well.

Annette Wright is assistant editor and a contributing writer of The South Florida Gourmet.