Last month, Francesco “Frank” Buffa sent waves across his neighborhood when he shuttered the gates on Ferdinando’s Focacceria, his 121-year-old Sicilian restaurant in Carroll Gardens. Many feared the worst, and rightfully so. Buffa’s health had been a concern for years, and no successor had been named to take his place as chief of the operation.
But it appears Ferdinando’s will live on in some spirit, shape, or form. According to Eater, Buffa has tossed the keys to another, much younger, legend in the neighborhood. Namely: Sal Lamboglia, the man behind Cafe Spaghetti, Swoony’s, and Sal Tang’s, a Cantonese American spot around the corner from Ferdinando’s co-owned with Wilson Tang of Nom Wah. Lamboglia was reportedly “hand-picked” by Buffa as the heir to the space, which is wooded and worn, and was also used as a film location in Martin Scorsese’s 2006 film The Departed, despite the movie taking place in Boston (a photo of Leonardo DiCaprio still hangs in the dining room).
Though Lamboglia has yet to detail his plans for the restaurant, a spokesperson confirmed that whatever’s in the works at the old Union Street haunt will be built in honor of its predecessor. A timeline for the space’s transformation is also unclear.
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