Episode Description
#146
Josh sits down with Jason Anello, better known as Janello, at Da Nico on Mulberry Street in Manhattan's Little Italy. Janello is an experience strategist on a mission to bring back dinnertime. That inspired him to create The Red Sauce Map and the Forking Tasty supper club so others can experience dinnertime through his Italian-American lense. They trace how Italian immigration and New World abundance turned scarcity cooking into stacked, saucy, unmistakably American plates, and why chicken parm has no Parmesan in it at all. Janello defines what actually qualifies a restaurant as a red sauce joint, from the antipasto and the tiramisu to the photos on the wall and the bottle of cheap Chianti, and runs down his top chicken parms and lasagnas across the country.
The conversation moves through fresh versus dried pasta, the ricotta dishes he can live without, and a segment called In Memory Of, where the two of them eulogize the neighborhood spots that have closed. From there it turns to the new generation of chefs reinterpreting the genre, what Carbone understood about theater and hospitality, and the three reasons Janello thinks these restaurants really close. It is a warm, opinionated look at a category of restaurant that is equal parts food, memory, and cultural preservation.
Links and resources 📌
Visit meez: https://www.getmeez.com
Follow meez on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/getmeez
Follow Josh on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joshlsharkey/?hl=en
Follow Josh on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-sharkey-406965b/
Red Sauce Map: https://www.theredsaucemap.com
Follow Janello on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/forkingtasty
Follow Janello on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janello/
Timestamps
02:07 The History Of Red Sauce Joints In America
04:23 How Janello Defines A Red Sauce Joint
06:49 The Chicken Parm Origin Story 1
1:16 Janello's Top Five Chicken Parms In The Country
13:03 What Makes A Great Chicken Parm
14:45 Lasagna, Manicotti, And The Ricotta Debate
20:50 The Checklist Every Red Sauce Joint Should Meet
22:45 In Memory Of: The Closed Joints He Misses Most
25:51 Old School Versus The New Red Sauce Joint
33:50 The Three Reasons Red Sauce Joints Close