The Bellas Family: Smile and Eat Happy

RESIDENT FEATURE

By Stacey McEvoy

Sometimes things are meant to be. The stars just line up. That’s what happened with the Bellas family’s Sorriso Kitchen, which is opening downtown at 252 Main Street.

Sorriso Kitchen serves creative fresh farm-to-table breakfast and lunch while supporting the special needs community. That’s bound to put a sorriso on your face. Sorriso means smile in Italian. The inspiration for the name? It’s LJ (Lawrence James)—Karen and Jimmy Bellas’s 17-year-old son who has Down syndrome.

“LJ puts a smile on everyone’s face who meets him,” says Karen. “We were thinking it would be a great learning experience for our 14-year-old son Nico and we knew we would be providing a place for LJ to work. It’s very important to Jimmy and I that LJ be a part of the community he lives in,” she says. LJ, a lover of people and dogs and a huge Bruno Mars fan—as anyone who knows him knows—will greet and seat patrons. “It’s a place where LJ can work in a safe environment and be respected,” adds Jimmy, noting he and Karen are hopeful that Sorriso Kitchen will serve as a model for other businesses to offer some training opportunities to the disabled in their communities.

Jimmy grew up in the restaurant business in Long Island, NY, where his father who ran eateries for more than 50 years, owned a 350-seat seafood restaurant in Port Washington called Jimmy’s Backyard for 27 years before it closed in 1993. “I grew up in the kitchen standing on a milk crate,” laughs Jimmy, who studied hotel and restaurant management and eventually opened his own place, a wood burning brick oven pizza restaurant up the street from Jimmy’s Backyard. “In 1996, when I was bartending one evening, a beautiful woman came to the bar and ordered a Limoncello,” says Jimmy, noting that Limoncello wasn’t a popular order at the time. The beautiful woman who knew of Limoncello from a recent trip to Amalfi, a place where the limoncello lemon is grown, was Karen.

After selling his business in 1998, the year they were married, Jimmy entered corporate America where he would work for 20 years at American Express, Tiffany & Co. and Dean & Deluca. But he never lost sight of the restaurant business, thinking that one day he might return to it; perhaps with his own family that now included Karen.

Raised in Brooklyn, NY, the only child of Greek and Italian parents, Karen followed her passion for art and earned her bachelor’s degree in advertising from the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. She then worked as an art director and creative supervisor at Madison Avenue advertising agencies and Doubleday Book and Music Clubs before taking time off to raise her sons. "I grew up acquiring a love for travel, music and good food," says Karen. "My grandparents would sit at the table at breakfast and plan lunch and dinner with great passion!"

Eight years ago, Karen converted the family’s two-car garage into an art studio and opened Coccabella Art & Design to teach children and adults. “I love being creative. It's part of almost everything I do. And it's wonderful sharing what I've learned with the children--to see their passion and excitement,” says Karen who has taught after school programs in art at Southern Boulevard School, St. Vincent Martyr School and Rainbow Montessori. She also does lots of creative work pro bono for ECLC where LJ is a student.

Nico, a Chatham High School freshman, a Boy Scout in Troop 8 and a member of the marching band who plays the sax, guitar and piano, likes to cook and keep the family entertained with his humor. He helped his parents pull the trigger on opening the eatery after hearing years’ worth of stories about his grandparents restaurant. “One day Nico said, ‘Would you guys stop talking about it and just do it already?’” recalls Karen. “We looked at each other and said: We should just do it.”

The couple took a walk downtown one morning soon after and dropped in at Angie’s diner where Sorriso Kitchen is now located. It was just the kind of spot they had envisioned—small enough to be a mostly family-operated business. After speaking with the owners, who were ready to retire and coincidentally of Greek decent like Jimmy and Karen who is half Greek, they said that God had sent the Bellas family to them—they were meant to open their dream in the space. A star lined up.

Next, they would need a chef to help them drive their vision. They began their search for someone who could provide creative, delicious food offerings with a contemporary flair and unexpected twist. They were thrilled to quickly find their executive chef Ryan Chatfield who trained at the Culinary Institute of America. Ryan’s scrumptious goat cheese and blueberry compote-stuffed French toast, trio of avocado toasts and short rib bacon and arugula burger helped seal the deal. Another star lined up.

In their conversations to determine if Sorriso Kitchen would open seven days a week, Karen and Jimmy concluded that the restaurant would close on Mondays. “It was the genesis of turning the restaurant into a training ground on Mondays for ECLC students,” says Jimmy, pointing out that it was also Disability Awareness month in October when the restaurant was shooting to open. The project just seemed meant to be—yet another star lined up.

The family decided it was a must to have an ADA-compliant restroom along with other renovations and items needed, so they launched a Kickstarter campaign to help them get the project done. “There was a tremendous amount of support from friends in the community. We are

so grateful,” says Karen. The $25,000 goal was exceeded by more than $6,000. Another star joined the lineup.

Karen’s creative work is visible everywhere—from the restaurant’s design inside and outside to the colors, the illustrations on the walls, the logo and the menu which includes some family recipes inspired by the couple’s Greek and Italian heritages.

“We love feeding and entertaining folks,” says Karen, who is heavily influenced by her more than eight visits to Italy “either for art classes or just for plain love of such a beautiful country and its people. I've always found it to be truly a treat for the senses. It's my favorite place away from home," she says. Karen’s dad was born there and came to America when he was 2 when they settled in Brooklyn. “When I graduated from college, he took me on a 15-day tour to Italy as my gift and I was hooked! On my most recent trip, I had a delicious breakfast item in Siena that our chef is recreating. It's absolutely delectable--you'll have to come in to see what it is!”

Karen and Jimmy wish both sets of their parents were still here. “I know they'd be so delighted for our mission. We feel like maybe they're sitting on our shoulders through this all. They'd be so proud of their grandsons too,” Karen says.

“Jimmy and I have always lived by our gut. We've asked ourselves many times, how does this or that feel? We've always listened and let that guide us. My feeling is that this adventure of ours is purely driven by inspiration. Not just motivation. There was something very strong inside us pulling at us and driving Sorriso to come to be. It just feels right. And we're delighted to be along for the ride,” says Karen.

Sorriso Kitchen’s tag line invites the community to “eat happy.” That’s a given. Start with having LJ bring you to your seat.

We would like to thank Salerno Duane Inc. in Summit for bringing you this month’s cover story.

Do you know a neighbor who has a story to share? Nominate your neighbor to be featured in one of our upcoming issues! Contact us at smcevoy@bestversionmedia.com.