NYC restaurant seats customers in apartment next door

New York Post

2 days ago

Now this is home cooking!
Upper East Side Italian restaurant Caffe Buon Gusto has been quietly seating customers in an apartment next door when their dining room is full, cramming them into its two bedrooms, living room and even hallway — stunning the unsuspecting.
'I had zero idea. They have a main dining room, that's where I assumed we'd be, but when we got there, it was a different story,' said Dylan Rozell, who was dyspeptic at the prospect of eating in a 'bare bedroom' when he visited the East 77th Street joint on Valentine's Day last year with three friends.
'We kept going further back and we go through the kitchen, they bring us down really narrow stairs, then up another set of stairs and next thing you know, I'm in a walk-up building and they open a door to an apartment,' the Staten Island native who lives in FiDi told The Post.
Rozell chowed down on his gnocchi with vodka sauce topped with burrata — which he said was 'freaking delicious' — in one of the two bedrooms of the apartment.
5 Dylan Rozell and his friends, who made Valentine's Day reservations at Caffe Buon Gusto, dined in the bedroom of an apartment next door.
Courtesy of Dylan Rozell
'Isn't that crazy? There were two tables in our room, and the room was small, giving classic New York City bedroom vibes,' he explained.
'And it was silent in there. Not even an ounce of music.'
Other diners occupied other spots in the four-room abode.
'There was one table filled in the living room and then one in the second bedroom,' he continued.
When Rozell ventured to the bathroom, he was in for yet another surprise.
'There were beer cases stuffed in the bathtub. I was very confused,' he confessed.
5 When Rozell entered the apartment's bathroom, he was shocked to see cases of beer inside its bathtub.
Courtesy of Dylan Rozell
Other patrons pointed out the 'strange' seating situation in their reviews on OpenTable, where the restaurant boasts a 4.3 out of 5 rating for its ambience.
'We were seated in a back space that looked like an apartment. The ambiance in that room was particularly strange and quiet as we were eating in the hallway of an apartment,' noted a customer who dined there on March 8.
Caffe Buon Gusto — 'Good Taste' in Italian — opened in 1988, and is housed on the first floor of a six-story walk-up.
To the right of the restaurant is the entrance to the residential building, where apartment No. 1 has been rented by the restaurant's owner, Nando Ghorchian since 2021, according to property records.
Gabrielle Gorman, who lived in the flat-turned dining room for two years until 2019 with a roommate, found out the restaurant took over her pad after she saw a TikTok video in March which did not name the location, which was first identified by East Side Feed.
'I was like, 'OMG, that was my old bedroom!'' Gorman told The Post. 'I was absolutely shocked that I used to live in that apartment.'
The apartment is conveniently located near the restaurant's kitchen, accessible through the building's side door.
'That door was always open and you could see into their kitchen,' she remembered.
5 This first floor apartment is being used to seat restaurant customers.
Helayne Seidman
5 The restaurant's kitchen can be seen through the building's side door.
Helayne Seidman
Gorman said she was surprised that the restaurant — whose priciest pasta is a $42.95 linguine with lobster, shrimp, calamari and scallops — would shell out extra dough for the pad.
'I just think it's fascinating that they could afford that apartment too,' she said. 'By the time we moved out, the rent was up to $3,200. When I first moved in, it was $2,900.'
The building is owned by Taormina Holding Corporation, based on East 74th Street, who said: 'There are no violations regarding the apartment. Furthermore, the office has not received any complaints from the other tenants regarding the tenancy.'
5 Caffe Buon Gusto is housed on the first floor of a six-story walk-up.
Helayne Seidman
In 1992, Ghorchian debuted a second Caffe Buon Gusto location in Brooklyn Heights. In 2023, he opened a third in Hoboken. He had another location in Riverdale, which has since closed.
He did not return requests for comment by The Post and staff at the restaurant declined to comment.
Shari Logan, assistant press secretary for the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene told The Post: 'New York City and New York State health regulations prohibit home-based restaurants,' noting that homes cannot be used as dining areas.