THE women made a pilgrimage to West 68th Street, 450 miles from home, squinting in the rain on Monday as they peered through the restaurant’s front windows. The place was closed, they were told.
Not a problem, they said. They had come only to glimpse the Mother Gaga.
“That guy’s so lucky,” said Michele Munnery, 21, visiting with two friends from Cayuga, Ontario, as she watched a man work behind the bar. “I’m nervous just standing out here.”
Next Wednesday, in a modest space off Columbus Avenue, Joseph and Cynthia Germanotta plan to open
Joanne Trattoria, an Italian restaurant with a well-stocked front bar, a cozy back patio and seating for about 70 people. The venture has been both bolstered and complicated by a simple fact: the Germanottas’ daughter Stefani, better known as
Lady Gaga, is perhaps the most famous woman in the world.
For now, the owners seem suspended between embracing the attention and distancing themselves from it. Lady Gaga’s few mentions of the restaurant and her appearance at a party there on
New Year’s Eve have generated buzz that top chefs could only hope to attract. Art Smith, the chef and a partner at Joanne, met her at a taping of Oprah Winfrey’s show. (Mr. Smith was Ms. Winfrey’s personal chef for many years.)
Yet Lady Gaga’s celebrity threatens to compromise the low-key tenor of the restaurant, which is billed as a casual neighborhood Italian spot, like its predecessor, Vince & Eddie’s. If the singer’s followers flock to Joanne, what will matter more: the chicken scarpariello or the woman with the egg costume?
“One tweet,” Ms. Germanotta said, her blue eyes widening, “and it’s over.”
In
an ABC News interview with Katie Couric in November, Lady Gaga said, “My dad and I opened up a restaurant together.” She recalled watching him raise the awning on 68th Street, blocks from where she was raised, and naming the place for his sister, who died of lupus at age 19. Lady Gaga teared up. “That’s wealth,” she said, placing her hand over her heart. “That’s the dream.”
In fact, Lady Gaga is not an owner, and Mr. Germanotta said the family could have afforded to open even without his daughter’s success.
The fare will be Southern Italian, Ms. Germanotta said, in the sense that Mr. Smith is Southern and the Germanottas are Italian. Papa G’s chicken, named for Mr. Germanotta, will most likely be offered. So will an osso buco inspired by his sister, and Cynthia’s
salad, after Ms. Germanotta. Mr. Smith has been given free rein to offer a “Southern Sunday” menu each week. Entrees will cost about $25 to $30, Mr. Germanotta said.
Renderings of the Tuscan countryside adorn the walls. Near the fireplace at the entrance, family photos hang above a front booth. But the Germanottas said they were unsure whether to include a picture of their famous daughter. Perhaps, Ms. Germanotta mused, they could find an older shot in which the singer is recognizable only up close.
Mr. Germanotta agreed. “If they’re expecting to come in here and see Grammys and pictures and stuff like that, it’s not going to happen,” he said.
Still, at least one person — besides the three women from Ontario out front, who later searched beneath a parked Ford for any scrap of Gaga detritus — seemed eager for the star’s occasional appearance: the chef, Mr. Smith. If, of course, she could squeeze in a visit.
“We have to share her,” he said. “Just like everybody else.”
