Not all fairy tales end with a ride off into the sunset and a happily ever after attached them. Sometimes, you have to fold up shop and hit the road having no real idea of what will happen next. That scenario is where Chef Roberto Leoci finds himself as 2016 kicks into full gear. Leoci’s Trattoria at 606 Abercorn is closed and will not re-open. Leoci will also be leaving his position at Pacci Savannah inside of The Brice Hotel downtown within 60 days.
“I’m going to miss everybody”, Leoci told me on Friday. “Savannah is very special to me and always will be.
There aren’t too many chefs who will get the kind of attention Roberto will be getting between now and when he leaves for New York City. But if you follow Savannah’s food scene with any regularity, then you know Leoci hasn’t been just any chef in this community.
Roberto came to Savannah from Miami to work in what, at the time, was Savannah’s best Italian restaurant “Il Pasticcio”, at the corner of Bull and Broughton. While he was there, he got to know a young lady, a student at SCAD, who enjoyed sitting at the bar after school working on her homework assignments. Roberto and Lacie Leoci were married in 2005 with a plan to open their own restaurant. Leoci’s Trattoria opened on Abercorn Street downtown in December of 2009. The Leoci’s model was a mom and pop trattoria. Small and manageable. The kind of place where the regulars were greeted by name. The food? Excellent every time out. “I want to have the kind of place where I am in my dining room every night”, Roberto told me at the time. “Savannah is the right size to have a great neighborhood trattoria.”
Leoci’s Trattoria stormed out of the gate as one of best spots to eat in Savannah. Its popularity rivaled some of this city’s best restaurants. With only forty or so seats inside, reservations were a must. It was the kind of popularity that fed off of itself. A line of products including cured meats, jellies and jams followed. In a very short time, the Leocis had everything they wanted. A popular restaurant, solid clientele and a budding brand of products. It’s a formula any aspiring chef would love to have.
That’s where this story takes its turn and begins to mirror something out of a movie. It wasn’t long before whispers of inconsistency began to creep across town. If Roberto himself wasn’t in his kitchen, then your chances of getting a meal as good as you remembered were slim. I know now that it was about the same time that Roberto admits to losing some of the passion for what it takes to operate and maintain a local neighborhood restaurant.
“Seeing my peers. Working with Jonathan Waxman and guys like that. It’s a model they follow. They open mom and pop restaurants, then they wind up opening in hotels. Their mom and pops don’t exist anymore.” It’s a model Roberto starting chasing hard. He chases it to this day.
The Leocis set out to make Roberto a household name. There wasn’t a camera or a microphone he shied away from. Charity function? Absolutely. Food and wine festivals up and down the east coast? No problem. Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and more. He was everywhere. There was a line of frozen pizzas he promoted at Costco stores. There were privately catered events in Florida. All of it pulling his attention farther and farther away from his bread and butter, his restaurant. 606 Abercorn had become a shadow of what it had been two years before. I’m told regulars pleaded with him to slow down and focus on Savannah. Many, many times, he promised he would. He really never did. The magic was eroding, and everyone who dined there regularly, knew it.
While the city was getting a handle on its day to day servings at Leoci’s, Roberto landed a dream job, right here in Savannah. Kimpton Hotels was opening a new property on Bay Street at Houston. They wanted a local figure to head their restaurant. Roberto Leoci got the job. It was the perfect next step for Roberto. Still, the locals were confused. Was Roberto moving? Shutting down his original spot? How can he have two restaurants when the first one is suffering like it is? All the while, Roberto and Lacie Leoci prepared for divorce buckling under the pressures that all of it brought. “The struggle was over two years”, he says. “I tried hard to hide it well and keep the smiley face.” That divorce was finalized the first week of December.
Leoci’s Trattoria cruised on reputation for some time. Unsuspecting tourists not realizing that it wasn’t at all the spot it once was. It can happen to any restaurant that goes through a tough time, but the reality was, Roberto’s heart wasn’t in it anymore. “Leoci’s was created by me and Lacie together. I met Lacie here”, he says. “But just being here, everywhere I look I think of her. Unfortunately, that includes the restaurant.” You combine that with a dream of chasing culinary prestige much larger than he thought Savannah could offer him, and his eyes started to wander, which allowed his flagship restaurant to completely run aground. Leoci’s Trattoria shut its doors the first week of December with a sign on the door that said “closed for renovations.” It will never reopen. Roberto Leoci is moving to New York City.
His line of products, he says, will live on in this area. “We are in Whole Foods and in Kroger here. They are produced in Statesboro. That will stay”, he says. “But I am bringing more production with me to the tri-state area.”
Roberto’s tenure as Executive Chef at Pacci Savannah will end in March as well. “I’ve never lived in New York. I know a ton of people there”, he says. “I’m not going there to be rich. I’m going there to show what I can do. I’m like that guy getting on the bus to go to Hollywood to see if I’m gonna make it.”
Taking over at Pacci Savannah, Dusty Grove. An extraordinarily talented chef who understands not only the vision for “Coastal Italian” cuisine, but the Savannah marketplace. Chef Dusty has had a heavy hand in that kitchen already and was a major influence on its new menu, which rolled out in December. That property is in very good hands.
This all sounds like quite an obituary. Not at all. Roberto sees this next chapter in his life as a celebration. As well he should. As he tells it, this is where he wanted to be all along, rubbing elbows with celebrity chefs from coast to coast. He thinks New York City will offer him an easier path than he had here. Meanwhile, this city will remember Roberto Leoci as a popular-if not generous and talented chef -who ultimately grew eyes a little bit bigger than Savannah would stomach. Few will question his talent. But it doesn’t matter who you are or what field you ply your trade. If your desire isn’t in lock step with that talent, then it’s time to go. Truth be told, some of the best meals I’ve had in Savannah were at Leoci’s Trattoria, and that is saying something. Unfortunately, some of the worst meals I’ve had in Savannah were at the same spot. That’s unfortunate.
Roberto tells me he is in the process of finalizing his plans on where he will be and who he will be working with so he can’t talk about them now. He still has a couple of months here and hopes to be able to say goodbye to a good many friends in that time. “My heart will always be here.” But it was just time to go. “I’m gonna miss everybody”, he says. “I’m sure everyone can understand, you need a break sometimes.”
See you on TV,
Jesse
