Leyla Marchetto and her father, Silvano Marchetto

Though Leyla Marchetto, daughter of NY legend Silvano Marchetto (Da Silvano), seemed born for the restaurant business, it took some nudging to get her to follow in her father’s footsteps. She studied psychology at Georgetown University, interned at a travel publication and worked in fashion PR before opening casual Italian spot Scuderia at the age of 29. We caught up with her at her comfy trattoria, smack across the street from Da Silvano, to discuss her experience growing up as a restaurant brat.

Zagat Buzz: Did you spend a lot of your childhood in your father’s restaurant?

Leyla Marchetto: Oh, yes. I went to the Little Red Schoolhouse just a block away...so when all the other kids were picked up at three o’clock after school, I just walked over to the restaurant. I would hang out, eat, do homework. Or roller-skate! I loved roller skates, and I was always skating in the restaurant. Cyndi Lauper was one of my idols back then. And once, she was in the restaurant, and I roller-skated down the long hallway toward the restroom and knocked over everything at her table.

ZB: What's the most valuable lesson you learned from your father?

LM: One important thing has been inherited, I think, not really taught. It’s the power of observation. My father has a hawk eye, a sixth sense, so that he’s always noticing things, even if he’s not directly looking. He zeroes in on detail, noticing when things are out of place. One day he was in here, and the waiters didn’t notice a dirty table, so he went over and started bussing it. Another thing I learned from him was to expect the long hours. My father has been very successful at integrating his work with his life. He was always in the restaurant, and that felt normal to me. The business is very hands-on and relies on having someone there for consistency.

ZB: It’s such hard work and a tough, risky, business. Did your father want to protect you from that by discouraging you from the business, or did he encourage you?

LM: He definitely encouraged me to go into the restaurant business. When I graduated from college and started working in PR, he was like, “What about the restaurant?” It was almost like he wanted me to be him. That was one of the reasons that I didn’t jump into the business and that I wanted to do something new. Because Silvano is Silvano. I can’t be him. When this space (Scuderia) became available, he started talking to my now-partners, Alessandro Bandini and Fabrizio Sotti about it, and I jumped in and said, “What about me?!” So he was happy. Restaurants are the only thing he understands, and I’m an only child, so the expectation was always there.

ZB: Wasn’t he afraid of competing against you, and himself, in essence?

LM: You know, Silvano’s opinion was that he would rather partially compete against himself than compete against someone else. Like, what if this space became Minetta Tavern? Plus, we’re for a different customer – we generally get a younger crowd that can’t afford Da Silvano. I think he’s doing just fine.

ZB: What are the advantages of having your father right across the street?

LM: He’s been very helpful. When we were going through construction, he was always here to check on it. He also taught me the importance of putting together a good team. At Silvano, I was more of an observer, and I understood the PR side. But I didn’t know so much about operations, and construction, and scheduling staff and food costs...all of the nitty-gritty. I learned the business side from the experience of opening a restaurant.

ZB: What about these classic albums on the wall? Did you inherit them from your father?

LM: Yes! They are from his record collection. He claims that how he learned to speak English was by listening to the Rolling Stones! I was thinking of design ideas and I had all of this space to cover up, so I went to Manhattan Mini-Storage and started digging through his boxes. He has like 400 or 500 records. I picked through them and chose some for decor.

ZB: Who are some of your other restaurant role models, besides Dad?

LM: Definitely Jean-Georges Vongerichten and his partner, Phil Suarez. Their group of restaurants seems so streamlined and well-organized. They are all very focused and distinct. I particularly love Perry Street.

ZB: So has JGV inspired you to become a mogul one day?

LM: I am in talks right now about starting a restaurant group with others for a concept of several small, 80-seat establishments. Perhaps one American, one Italian – all distinct. It’s not like there would be five Scuderias all over the world. So, yes, he’s an inspiration in that way.

ZB: What advice would you pass down to your children one day about the business?

LM: If they were interested, I would encourage them to start working in it, with me or someone else, at an early age. I got kind of a late start, and I didn’t actually work in restaurants – I didn’t waitress, I didn’t do anything. I wish I would have gone and interned for someone like Jean-Georges 15 years ago. I have been able to learn a lot, but I still feel that I don’t know enough. So if that’s what they really want to do, I would recommend working in a restaurant at a young age as opposed to going to Cornell School of Hospitality, for example, to only find out that you hate the restaurant business when you graduate.

– Kathleen Squires