In a sea of new restaurants that rapidly open and close at a one-year-or-less pace, Park Slope’s Convivium Osteria has kept things going on 5th Avenue since 2000. Co-owner Carlo Pulixi notes, “This part of the neighborhood, I would say we were the very first. There were Spanish bodegas but nothing of what you see today. It was totally different.” The rustic, Southern Italian restaurant brings a little slice of Carlo’s Sardinia roots to Park Slope, a menu filled with fresh Mediterranean pasta and meat dishes. “It wasn’t really that I invented anything, more re-created. We brought it back to its origins,” Pulixi says. Co-owner and wife Michelle Pulixi met Carlo while working at Il Buco in the East Village, and the two decided that her Park Slope neighborhood would be the second home to showcase Carlo’s own home roots, along with Michelle’s Latin American family background. Today, you can still find many of the same menu items from when Convivium Osteria first opened nearly 20 years ago. We chatted with the owners about their experiences in the food industry and what they each love about Park Slope.
Can you tell me a little bit about your background and how you got involved in the food industry?
Michelle: I’ve been in the food restaurant industry since I was 12, where I worked on weekends at my best friend’s moms apple pie shop, sometimes at the counter, sometimes making pies. Since then I have always just been working my way up at different restaurants until I ended up in NYC and within 6 months of moving here I met Carlo at a restaurant I was working at and 1 year later we started looking for a place to open up together. 2 years later we had Convivium. I worked along side him all the way through, he is the main brain behind it all, and I am good a supporting and giving fresh ideas and adding artistic touches. We raised our kids in our apartment above the restaurant and it is really a family thing. Our son is just about ready to start working at Convivium in about 1 year, but they have always helped in setting up and doing little chores.
Carlo: Well I’m from Italy. Sardinia. I spend half of my teens to half of them in Roma before coming to the United States. And since I’ve been in the United States I’ve always worked in restaurants. And it’s not that hard for me, came kind of natural. With a number of partners, I opened a restaurant in the city before coming here to Brooklyn, which that’s the time that I met my wife Michelle. I don’t know, it just comes naturally to me, the restaurant business.
How did you help decide to move Convivium to Park Slope?
Carlo: When I met Michelle, she used to live here in Park Slope. I had never set foot in Brooklyn till then. Came to this neighborhood, got off at Grand Army Plaza, and fell in love with it. It was spring, the trees were green and all that. The neighborhood and the tree-lined streets, the sloping streets, the beautiful townhouses, and then, after almost 10 years in New York City, the kind of quietness. We lived very close to the park. It felt very great. We were planning on moving to Europe then really fell in love with it so we decided to open the restaurant here.
Michelle: We ended up in Park Slope because I lived here since 1998 and we both loved the neighborhood. Also, it had become impossible for little guys to open anything in Manhattan. Rents were reasonable back then in Park Slope, haha! We had very little money and had to squeeze everything in order to open up shop. Park Slope had a very cozy neighborhood feel, we felt at home here.
What do you think makes Convivium stand out from other restaurants in the neighborhood?
Michelle: What I think makes Convivium stand out is how when you enter the front door of our restaurant, you leave the hustle bustle of the city outside and, like a time portal, enter into a very rustic and cozy embracing atmosphere, at least I hope people do, that was our goal. A place where people can feel loved and appreciated, from the love we put into the food, to the setting and the service. Carlo is very keen to details and consistency at every level, from the wines he chooses to offer, to where he places a copper pot to shine just right, to quality and freshness of the produce and meat we offer, to the very rare and special wild fennel pollen that he chooses to spice a special pasta with. He was raised by farmers and chefs in Italy, so he has a lot of knowledge of the old world to bring to us.
Katrina Yentch
Katrina Yentch is a writer, caffeine purveyor and L.A. native with a newfound addiction to New York pizza. She can be reached at kyentch@gmail.com.