Accurso’s Italian Restaurant has a new owner…named Accurso
For nearly three decades, restaurateur Joe Accurso was the man to see for Southern Italian cuisine just south of the Plaza. Generous, jovial, good-natured Joe opened a little delicatessen at 5044 Main in 1984 when he was 24 years old. The sandwich shop later became the classic incarnation of a family-style Italian-American restaurant: red-and-white-checked vinyl tablecloths, Chianti bottles used for candlesticks, family photos hammered into every inch of available wall space. The food was cheap, the ambience casual, and there was always Joe – delivering plates, opening wine bottles, hanging out with his regulars.
When 5044 Main was slated to be demolished, Joe Accurso rented space in a new building being constructed down the street at 4980 Main – the same glass-box structure that contains Spin! Pizza and Glace Artisan Ice Cream – and opened a shiny new Accurso’s in 2009. The menu didn’t really change, and the Accurso family photos were back on the walls, but the place just wasn’t the same. That essense of an old-fashioned neighborhood joint was gone, and some of the old restaurant’s eccentricities (erratic service, an inconsistent kitchen) were less tolerable in the sleek new dining room. Also, Joe, now the father of a toddler, didn’t seem to be around as often.
In 2011, Joe sold his restaurant to his cousin Craig Accurso and Craig’s son, Anthony. Since neither of them had much, if any, hands-on restaurant experience, they spent the first 15 months operating the restaurant as it had been for the previous two years. Sure, they painted the dining rooms, added linen tablecloths on weekends and replaced the photos of Joe Accurso’s clan with photographs of their side of the Accurso family. And to understand the workings of a busy restaurant kitchen, Anthony Accurso – the owner and senior manager – spent a year cooking behind the line.
Last month, the big changes were unveiled at Accurso’s. And Anthony is out of the kitchen and working the dining room.
