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La Parma draws crowd with Neapolitan Italian cuisine
"An unusual operation has been thriving for more than two years in Williston Park, a New York city suburb. La Parma puts any notion of grazing or sampling completely out of the question, and it also ignores the northern Italian or authentic regional Italian cuisines that have become popular in the last decade.
Two partners--chef Dominic Gregorio and manager Tony Gralto, who runs the front-of-the-house--turn their 90 seats at least there times every evening, serving 300 or more dinners to customers who willingly line up in the parking lot, waiting for table. That is the case even on weekdays, when the competition in the area has trouble filling its seats once....
The Operation also has the good-natured noise and bustle of success. It is an atmosphere of people havinga good time. The cheerfully efficient waiters who dish up the double portions at the table enhance the conviviality.
And just as most of the food is prepared freshly and with care, so the tables are covered with white linen and napkins are cloth. simple blonde of wood and cane chairs, a few hanging plants and a greenhouse extension along one side of the building are the sum total of decorative effects. The dress is decidedly casual and appropriately so. Gregorio and Gralto have even dispensed with printed menus, posting a pair of large boards listing the available dishes on the wall. Only one of them has prices on it, something of an inconvenience since it is not clearly visible from all parts of the room..."
by Florence Fabricant, Nation's Restaurant News
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