staten island advance.

restaurateur makes a successful go of it on the island.
es-ca in dongan hills has been a hit since it opened about a year ago.
9.7.2003

When the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, forced Michael Calore to shutter his downtown bistro, the last place he expected to be working two years later was on Staten Island.

The 37-year-old New Springville resident's restaurant, Via, had been open just four months when the Twin Towers were destroyed; located only a block east of the World Trade Center, the structure was far enough from Ground Zero to survive the buildings' demise, yet close enough that the dust-coated building could no longer sustain business.

With no chance to recoup the $225,000 he and his partners had pumped into the place and - thanks to an ex-associate's bad credit rating - a loan rejection from the Small Business Association (SBA), Calore let his landlord reclaim his Manhattan property.

With 20 years of experience managing in Brooklyn and Manhattan, and with friends advising him against trying to turn a profit on Staten Island, the restaurateur spent the following year out of work, living on savings and government grants.

Today, his 11-month-old Dongan Hills restaurant, Es-Ca, is not only surviving, it's flourishing. Patrons call the food "amazing," barely pausing to talk as they gobble skirt steak and mashed potatoes. Word-of-mouth helps him get catering gigs and weekend parties, and Calore even has clientele who shuttle in from other boroughs for lunch.

Some of the repeat customers, such as Grasmere resident Jim Venosa and Reggie Tartaglione of Dongan Hills, make a ritual out of dining there, dropping in every Tuesday before they go bowling.

"It was scary," Calore said of opening Es-Ca. "I took a shot."

He was able to take that shot with investments from father-in-law Andrew Esposito (who, along with Calore, lends the first two letters of his surname to form "Es-Ca") and business partner Max Calicchio of Gravesend, Brooklyn. Though turned down for an SBA loan and granted a mere $6,000 in insurance, Calore received $18,000 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) plus two grants (totaling $50,000) from the Empire State Development Corp. When former tenant Ariana's vacated 1559 Richmond Rd., Calore and his partners were ready to take over. Within a month, they had gutted the kitchen, resurfaced the bar, redone the walls and put together an Italian menu with a worldly flair. By Oct. 1, 2002, Es-Ca had opened and was an immediate hit.

Though Calore and Calicchio admit they are not yet close to recouping the approximate $300,000 investment it took to get Es-Ca rolling, they both say they are entering the restaurant's second year of business with a running start.

"We can never be too confident, but we're a lot better off now," Calicchio said. "For a place to get on the grid like we did, we have no complaints." While no longer working 15-hour days, seven days a week, as they did when they first opened, Calore and Calicchio still scrub windows, run deliveries and spend their days off lurking around the restaurant, performing odd jobs. They're enjoying success, but are not forgetting the hardships of Sept. 11, 2001, when they lost Rob Cordice, Via's Thursday night bartender and a firefighter with Engine 152.

"It was a nightmare," said Alison Marchese, 29, of Annadale. Marchese has worked with Calore for more than eight years as manager, waitress, hostess, bartender or whatever title is necessary at the moment.

"You felt like you just got your feet taken out from under you," Calicchio said of Via's closing. "We didn't get a chance to fail."

Two years later, however, the owners of Es-Ca have a different story to tell.

"With hard work and perseverance, you can bounce back," Calore said.