About a month before coronavirus upended the entire American restaurant industry, Robbie Felice was at the highest point in his cooking career.
The 29-year-old chef-owner of Viaggio in Wayne, New Jersey, had opened his second restaurant, a dry-aged Italian chophouse called Osteria Crescendo in Bergen County, last April. Both establishments were ranked in New Jersey Monthly magazine’s 30 Best Restaurants list, a respected barometer of quality for the state. Felice got asked to represent the region in the Barilla Pasta World Championship, and the James Beard Foundation named him a semifinalist for their 2020 Rising Star award for chefs under 30.
“Here I was, some little nobody out here in Jersey, and it was like, ‘Oh my God, I’m killing it this year—nothing can stop me now,’” Felice says. “I was on top of the world, then this whole tragedy struck.” He says it feels like a bad dream. “Every morning I wake up, and for three or four seconds I think about how I have to go to the restaurants.”
Photograph by Christopher Villano
The Pivot: After closing Viaggio and Osteria Crescendo for dine-in service on March 15, Felice was staring down walk-ins full of product. “I couldn’t let…
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