Chef

If you Can Stand The Heat: Cancelliere in his Italian Market eatery. Photo By: Michael T. Regan

Butcher’s Cafe’s Pascual Cancelliere

by Deborah Bolling

Face it, in Philadelphia, a city starved for stars, chefs are the big buzz. This week, City Paper introduces Chef, a monthly feature that looks at the people behind the food.

The Butcher’s Cafe is an intimate Italian restaurant adorned with lacy window curtains and twinkling lights at the corner of Ninth and Christian streets. Most diners would agree it’s a great place to go for a wonderful meal. One of the things that makes the Butcher’s Cafe so memorable is that it actually was a butcher shop. Its former owner, the Giunta family, was renowned for generations in the Italian Market for their high-quality meats. But the real reason the Butcher’s Cafe has become such a standout in this famous old neighborhood is because of its young chef, Pascual Cancelliere.

When Cancelliere, 34, was growing up, he didn't know he was going to become a chef -- though it may have been apparent to everyone else. His dad, longtime Philadelphia restaurateur John Cancelliere, had been the proprietor of Longano's at Ninth and Catharine, Volare in Manayunk and the Monterey Grill in Old City. The younger Cancelliere says that he became a chef by stumbling in as a pinch-hitter.

"I became a chef by accident," he says, sitting in his cafe on a rainy Friday afternoon. The butcher shop's original steel meat hooks are still on the walls; softly humming ceiling fans and sparkling hardwood floors speak to the room's authenticity. "Restaurants were always in the family, so I always worked in them. But I was never in the kitchen. Before, I was doing the hosting, maitre d'ing and running the front."

Cancelliere says that his family's restaurant Longano's had once been only a block away -- long before Bella Vista became the place to be. "We came back because we like the neighborhood," says his dad, John. On Sundays, John takes over the kitchen with his own array of specials for his fiercely loyal followers. "Now it's more trendy. We get a lot more people than before. After all, this is the gateway to the Italian Market."

Pascual Cancelliere, a father of five with another due in October, says that when his dad opened the Butcher's Cafe four years ago, chef Carlo Menella was in charge of the kitchen. Menella had been with the family business for years.

"At that time, they just needed someone to do salads and appetizers, so I volunteered," he says. But when Menella left, ending his 40-year career, Cancelliere took over.

"I was nervous at first, but excited at the same time -- if that makes any sense," he says. Now, with the assistance of sous chefs Carlos Ramirez and Adrian Martinez, Cancelliere does the prepping, the shopping and decides the daily menu. "We have all rustic, homey-type recipes. But we don't have the traditional spaghetti and meatballs. We want people to feel like they're eating at home, so we went with simple ingredients, nothing exotic or hard to get. We also believe in big portions. Sometimes, my father and I would bump heads because he thought the portions were too big. But I wanted to make sure that our customers remembered what they'd had and they'd be able to tell their friends, •They don't skimp at the Butcher's Cafe.'"

Cancelliere says that weekends are the busiest times, with Tuesday and Thursday dinner tied for a close second. The small dining room seats 50 and is open every day except Monday. Lunch and dinner is served every day but Sunday, when it's dinner only from 1 to 9 p.m. It's a BYOB, cash-only restaurant, with reservations strongly recommended. Two years ago, Cancelliere and his wife, Dawn, took over the day-to-day operation of the restaurant from his father. Under their stewardship, the time-honored tradition of serving genuine, plentiful, fresh Italian fare has continued.

"For a former butcher shop, we sell a lot of seafood -- even though we do feature steaks and veal chops every week," he says. "Our gnocchi frutti di mare [gnocchi with an assortment of seafood] is our bestseller along with our ziti granchio [ziti with a pink sauce, a touch of celery and crabmeat]. We sell too many of these dishes to count.

"I think part of our success is that we keep it simple and easy so that you can go home and make it yourself," Canciellere explains. "I sometimes worry about the menu becoming boring, but if we were to change it, the people would become upset. It's one of those •don't fix it if it's not broken' kinda things. I've gotta say this is the happiest I've ever been in any restaurant -- working with my dad, having control of the kitchen and then coming out and seeing the customer's reactions. Always cook with love, that's what I say."

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