Staying Alive In New York’s Restaurant Business For 30 Years: An Interview With Il Buco’s Donna Lennard

There has been much discussion about how owning a restaurant is an exhausting and not-particularly profitable enterprise as a small business, with most new entries not even lasting five years in operation. Yet restaurants like New York’s Il Buco, opened in 1994 by Donna Lennard and her then partner, Alberto Avalle, started serving food out of their antique store on Bond Street in NoHo. At first it was very much a neighborhood place bit its reputation grew, and Lennard went on to open an Italian grocery named Il Buco Alimentari & Vineria, Il Buco al Mare in the Hamptons and another in Ibiza, Spain.

I interviewed Lennard as to how she managed for three decades to maintain one, then four food service establishments, especially at a time when the industry is under such fire from high prices, lack of good workers and landlords who hike rents impossibly high.

As someone who has survived—and thrived—within the New York restaurant scene for 30 years, are things worse today than in the past, as many doomsayers contend?

The restaurant industry has become more and more challenging since Covid. Not only have we lost a good portion of the workforce as people have left the city and the business, but the tightened restrictions, increasing minimum wage, and increase of lawsuits makes it more and more difficult to run a business and be profitable. Difficult times have happened before and will happen again, and we always learn to adapt and keep moving.

What was the downtown restaurant landscape like when you first opened Il Buco?

During that time there was Baltazar, Omen, Raouls, Indochine, Casanis to Prune, to name a few of the old classic standouts, with a constant addition of innovative and exciting new talent. It has been truly satisfying to be a part of such a lineup and community that has been so supportive over the years.

You were a filmmaker, but you and your partner, Albert Avalle, happened upon a storefront and at first opened it as an antique store. How did the restaurant idea come to you ?

Alberto had worked with one of the most wonderful mentors in Umbria for many years, as well as being the right hand to the woman who ran the private events at Christies, London. He had the idea in the back of his mind from square one, I believe, but wanted to do it in a casual, non-restaurant way, organic, simple, experiential. As a former filmmaker, I loved the process of creating the space with our own unique aesthetic. I had also worked in the restaurant business for years while supporting my NYC life through film school. Once we got the antique store up and running we applied for the wine and beer license and it arrived dated with his 40th birthday! The serendipity began.

What have you learned about the business from working at the high-end Chanterelle?

Chanterelle was the most vivid example of how to present a 4 star restaurant with a hand-picked group of waiters with interesting backgrounds, each with his/her own personality – many creatives – in order to create a relaxed service style that was on point but comfortable and highly professional without the fussiness. Each of the servers I worked with were people I would love to hang out with on any given day. And naturally I learned so, so much about fine food, wine and even cheese, as they had a wonderful selection. The attention to detail that Karen and David gave to each part of that restaurant was commendable. All of these elements have been fundamental to the philosophy of the il Buco Family.

Your success spurred you to open restaurants in the Hamptons (where you own a house) and Ibiza, which are two very upscale but different environments. Did investors come to you to do so?

Ha! I have to chuckle a bit as I answer this one because there were investors in each of these but in both cases they came out of the woodwork in the most spontaneous ways. In the Hamptons, we were working with our partners, Robert and Valerie Mnuchin, on their project in Shelter Island when the al Mare space suddenly became available after a history of the landlord asking us to take it. It had gone to another group and the deal fell through. The Mnuchins then offered to back us in the project. In Ibiza, I came home from a visit to see the space and had two different regular customers/clients/friends at Alimentari the day I returned. They were curious about the potential project and jumped in to partner with us. Thus, Bottega il Buco was born, the link to the other side of the Atlantic and our Mediterranean roots.

How do you manage three restaurants so far from one another? Since you are very much a part of the hospitality, don’t guests expect to see you when they visit?

Ibiza is certainly a challenge in that way, still a work in progress! The restaurants in the city are a block apart and I live above one of them. It’s heartwarming to walk in those rooms on any given day and find regulars who have been coming for more than 20 years and often know one another in the room., and who I now consider friends. At this point, so many of the team members at Il Buco Bond have been there for years and are familiar warm faces for the guests. I also have a home in Amagansett where I spend more and more time, so I am often present at the bar having a snack with friends or even seated in the dining room at al Mare. But most important, has been the building of a strong team to carry my vision forward and being sure to spend plenty of time with them so that we never lose the thread.

What do you try to achieve in the atmosphere of your restaurants? To make sure they all have elements that bring “il Buco” into the room, whether that be beautiful antiques, tiles, patinas of the past, lots of wood and candlelight, or pieces of Vita – glassware, ceramicware, wooden cutting boards or even the whimsical paintings of my Vita partner, Antonello Radi to add to the ambience. And of course, we can’t discount the incredible community which has grown around the restaurants, and fills the house with creative conversation and conviviality daily.

You say that you look for “quiet luxury,” yet Il Buco can be a very loud place to dine. Why?

It’s the nature of the space, opened in the 90’s before we were considering all the devices to muffle sound. The old building (1840’s), tin ceiling, and wood floors make it noisier. There’s the outdoor tables or the wine cellar if you need a quiet escape. We did add insulation more than 10 years ago when we had a sprinkler catastrophe, but I’m afraid it didn’t provide a miraculous improvement. That said, the tables are well spaced and there are many intimate nooks and crannies that mitigate the problem in my opinion. With the warm, convivial nature, we honestly don’t get many complaints. In another sense, quiet luxury is more a part of our ethos and philosophy in everything we do, even if we can’t control the literal “quiet.”

The food at Il Buco in particular has a very personalized touch, which I assume your chef Roger Martinez has a hand in. How do you try to make a dish different from those made all over town, like, say, cacio e pepe or roasted branzino?

Just get the best ingredients and add a lot of love. The Cacio pepe at Alimentari is for me as good as any I eat in Rome and that was Justin Smillie’s signature recipe. The branzino needs to be well sourced since it’s farm raised in this country, and the rest is up to Roger and the team on Bond or Amelia Kirk and her wonderful teams at Alimentari and al Mare. The thought of making something different than others doesn’t cross my mind, we simply source the best ingredients and let my wonderful chefs play with their imaginations,

Do the menu differ in the Hamptons and Ibiza, depending on ingredients?

Yes, we try to put the focus on what’s local and in season everywhere we work.

What kind of access do you have to seafood at the Hamptons branch?

We have great local fishermen (our favorite, secret fishmongers) for oysters and shellfish as well as all the local fish, and when we need quantity we work with Gosmans or Stewarts.

Tell me about your wine program.

It began with a one page list of small boutique producers and under the master palate of Wine Director Emeritus, Roberto Paris, the il Buco list has grown to almost 1000 labels. We pay close attention still to new, inventive wine makers with respect for terroir and often working biodynamically. At this point, on Bond Street we also delve more deeply into different regions, appellations and single vineyard selections. Today the baton is in the hands of our company Beverage Director, Jarred Roth, who does a great job running all the programs in all properties, adjusting according to the specific location and its nuances. For instance, we try to focus on coastal wines out east, which brings some fun to the table.

The Michelin Guide to New York is notoriously stingy giving stars to Italian restaurants. Why do you think this is the case?

I can’t say. Michelin is Michelin and they have their own mysterious way of working. Would certainly love to see some of their stars fall our way!!

Do you have any plans to open any more food service establishments in New York or elsewhere?

Right now I’m focusing on the lifestyle side of my brand, working on il Buco Vita’s expansion and the harmony between it and the products we produce and how the lines cross between the restaurants and the home line. We are excited to launch a new Vita line – the Radi line – which will be featured at il Buco for service beginning next month and available for purchase.

Restaurant profits are supposedly very slim and thinner than ever. Is the key to own more than one restaurant?

It can be, and once upon a time that was easier. For me, however, more restaurants also means more work in a company where the ethos and all the details are so personal to me. We’re simply not so easy to reproduce in a way that doesn’t lead to a loss of the integrity of what we do. So for now, no more restaurants!

Who in the restaurant business continue to be inspirations for you?

Andrew Tarlow for his sheer dedication to his craft and the integrity of all he does; Ignacio Mattos for his delicious, very personal food; Francis Mallmann for his sheer “magic” and creative flair, and of course Alice Waters for leading the way!