Paul and Robbi Bartolotta
Since “Top Chef” Wisconsin premiered in March, Paul Bartolotta’s star is shining brighter than ever. Bartolotta, chef/owner/co-founder of Bartolotta Restaurants, and his brother Joe, who died in 2019, had a shared vision to bring the show to Wisconsin.
“I talked about it years ago with Joe,” Paul says. “I’d done ‘Top Chef’ as a judge starting in 2009. I had judged in Singapore and Hawaii and various locations. So I reached out to the production team and said ‘What’s it gonna take to get you guys to come to Milwaukee?’ One of the producers said ‘We were talking about doing the Midwest: Minneapolis, Milwaukee and Detroit.’ I said, ‘No, no, no. What’s it gonna take for it to be MILWAUKEE?’”
Bartolotta contacted the governor’s office and tourism boards, then worked to wow producers with a custard crawl. “I said, ‘If my custard crawl doesn’t seal the deal, I don’t know what to do. You guys are all foodies, but it starts with simple food of the people and all the neighborhoods.’ That’s when they got it,” Bartolotta recalls.
As the two-time James Beard award winner worked the “Top Chef” premiere party like a boss, it was obvious Bartolotta’s biggest fan is the woman who has been by his side for more than three decades — his wife Robbi.
Robbi and Paul sat down to reminisce over dinner at Lake Park Bistro. The couple’s daughter Giulia, joined us to share her memories growing up Bartolotta.
MKE Lifestyle: Finding your spouse in the kitchen of a New York restaurant sounds like the beginning of a rom-com. How did you two meet?
Paul: It was in 1987. After Robbi graduated from the Culinary Institute of America, she got a job at Palio in New York City.
Robbi: Paul had just come back after working in Italy and France for seven-plus years. He was 26. He was my boss, my sous chef.
Paul: I was working on opening [sister restaurant] San Domenico during the day. In the evenings, they put me at Palio to get used to the rhythms of New York restaurants.
Robbi: I was hired for garde manger — the cold food station. On my first day, my uniform was so big, when I got off the service elevator, Paul was sitting there. I said, ‘Excuse me, sir. Do you, by chance, have some string to tie up my pants?’ He said, ‘Let me give you my belt.’
Paul: When she told me they didn’t have size zero pants on the rack, I told her I would order her some. Then I took my belt off. She said, “Are you sure?” and I said, “It’s fine. My pants are staying up.”
Robbi: I didn’t have the hots for him, I wasn’t trying to pick him up. But I needed that belt more than anything.
MKE Lifestyle: How did your relationship evolve from sous chef/line cook, to a romance?
Paul: I had been at the restaurant a few weeks and I knew I was going to be leaving for San Domenico. Clearly, she was cute, but I’m very professional in everything I do.
Robbi: And he’s very private.
Paul makes a point of meeting with each of his employees, but getting to know Robbi led to a deeper connection.
Paul: One night I said, “When you’re done, meet me in the employee dining room.”
Robbi: I thought, “What did I do wrong?”
Paul: I said, “Where are you from?”
Robbi: I said, “I’m from Long Island.”
Paul: She was reluctant to talk. I asked her, “How did you get into the restaurant business?” She divulged that she was adopted by a Jewish family in Long Island. She was born in Seoul and adopted when she was 8. I asked, “What made you want to go into the restaurant business?”
Robbi: I never had anybody really ask me that question outside of my family.
Paul: I asked, “You went to culinary school and now you want to be a chef. What made you want to do that?” She said, “I know what it’s like to be hungry. I knew that if I was in the restaurant business, I would never go hungry again. I lived in an orphanage and we didn’t have any food. We would sneak out and eat orange peels and bugs.” That concept was foreign to me and it struck me to my core.
Robbi: I was very happy to come to America in 1974. My parents had three children and they wanted to adopt a girl — my sister wanted a sister, and they already had two boys. So they went to an adoption agency that gave them a black-and-white wallet-sized photo.
Paul: They’re a fantastic family. They had three kids of their own. It was an unselfish thing to do. But what a gift for Robbi, and for me.
Paul became Robbi’s mentor in the Palio kitchen.
Paul: One night she asked, “Would you teach me how to make risotto?” I got all the ingredients together and I made like six risottos.
Robbi: He taught me that you start with butter and a little bit of olive oil and chopped onions or shallots and your risotto. He was so kind. He had the knowledge and talent and skill and a lot of patience. He was a mentor and a great teacher.
Paul: Our mantra at our company is: We are life-long learners and we are lifelong teachers. We share, we mentor, we develop.
MKE Lifestyle: When did your relationship evolve from risotto lessons and friendship to dating?
Paul: Having personal friendships with people that you need to lead is hard. You need to have some distance. But in this case, it was a girl that was super cute and I knew I was going to be leaving Palio. So I said, “Do you want to get something to eat after work?” She said, “Sure.” I said, “I don’t want anyone to know I’m inviting you out socially so I’ll meet you two blocks away.” My sister Maria was working at the Hard Rock nearby.
Robbi: We left at the same time from work. But he said, “You can’t walk with me.” Our first date was dinner at the Hard Rock to meet his sister.
In true rom-com fashion, Paul began to walk Robbi home from work every night.
Robbi: I was living with my Aunt Janice and Uncle Sol on 89th and Central Park West. The streets were quiet at that time of night and we just got to know each other. Right, honey?
Paul: Yes. It was a long walk from the restaurant on 51st Street to Central Park West.
MKE Lifestyle: When did you know you had found “the one?”
Paul: I knew she was the one way earlier than she did, but I didn’t want to admit to that. I had so many other things I was thinking about.
Robbi: He had invested more than seven years in Europe studying and doing an apprenticeship. He wanted to be super-focused on his career, and I got that. You really didn’t want to have a serious, serious relationship, right?
Paul: I definitely did not, because I thought it would distract me from my focus to open San Domenico. I’m very thorough about everything I do. Once we started living together, we went to three years of marriage counseling before we got married. It was important we understood each other’s background.
Robbi: We needed to talk kids — if we have them, and how wer were going going to raise them.
Paul: And we needed to talk about religion and culture. She’s a Korean Jew and I’m an Italian Catholic.
Those therapy sessions paid off and on Oct. 10, 1999, Robbi Eisenmesser married Paul Bartolotta at Bartolotta’s Lake Park Bistro. Two years later, Robbi gave birth to their daughter, Giulia.
Giulia is a well-spoken, charming, 22-year-old, and both her parents light up when she joins the conversation.
MKE Lifestyle: Giulia, you’ve lived in a lot of places. What city would you call home?
Giulia: I was born in Chicago, but I would say Las Vegas and Florence, Italy, mean a lot to me. Florence was very formative because I was there from age 13 to 18. I was at an American school that was 60 percent Italian, but it was at The International School of Florence. Those are the places that feel like home.
I also have a lot of childhood memories of Milwaukee. My aunts and uncle lived here, so we would come back at Christmas. I have very, very fond memories of that. I’m close to my cousins, and Milwaukee feels homey.
MKE Lifestyle: Your last name is synonymous with great food and you’re the daughter of two chefs. Do you cook?
Giulia: I used to not be able to cook at all! Growing up in Florence, my mom’s cooking was famous. All my teachers knew about her baked goods. She bakes the best banana bread, the best apple pie. She packed me three-course meals for lunch. All my friends knew about it.
Paul: Everyone would ask, “What’s in Giulia’s lunch?”
Giulia: People still talk about my mom’s brownies years and years later.
Paul’s memories of homemade school lunches aren’t quite as sweet as Giulia’s.
Paul: I was 8 or 9 years old. I took my metal lunchbox to school and set it down, but I didn’t realize I set it on the metal radiator. Around lunchtime there was a terrible smell and they found my lunchbox. My dad had packed an octopus salad. It was the most humiliating, embarrassing moment of my childhood. I went home that night and said, “Dad, I don’t want any more of this Italian stuff. I want a ham and cheese sandwich, a bag of chips and an apple, just like all my friends.”
But Paul now appreciates that experience.
Paul: I had the good fortune to have parents who were exposing us to something different. Of all the neighbors, kids would walk into our house and there was always food around.
Giulia: My parents have replicated that for me. At 1 a.m., , they were fully awake, hanging out together with CNN playing in the background and my friend Jenny came over and she was amazed that he was making food.
I love food because of them; it’s a really big part of our life. But when I got to college my friends thought I was pretty incompetent [in the kitchen]. They’d say, “Your job is to set the table, Giulia.” But this fall I wanted to start being able to cook for myself.
Robbi: What was the first dish you called and asked me how to make?
Giulia: Grandpa’s roasted chicken with peas and onions. It’s a dish my dad’s dad made. My mom is the sweetest, she FaceTimes me and walks me through how to do everything.
Paul: On weekends and Sundays and holidays, we were always entertaining. Easter was a mixed grill with baby lamb, handmade ravioli, artichokes with mint. We cooked a lot. We entertained a lot at our house in Vegas and we had 20 people for Thanksgiving in our apartment in Florence.
Giulia: People still talk about that. For Christmas we have Grandma’s bisque. What’s in it again?
Paul: My mom made shrimp and crab bisque with curry.
Robbi: Paul’s mom was a great cook and his dad was also an amazing cook.
Guilia: When we go on a family vacation, it’s always about the food. Our trips are very centered around food, and that’s carried over to me.
MKE Lifestyle: You seem to have a very fun dynamic with your parents. What’s it really like at home with them?
Giulia: They get really silly together. They’re like a comedy show, from my perspective.
Paul: All your friends love us. We’re famous.
Giulia: Sure! Don’t flatter yourself.
Paul: But it’s true.
Giulia: It really is. They’re basically my best friends. I love them. They’re very special people. MKE
The Name Game
Diners in Milwaukee say “Bart-o-lotta,” but as Paul discovered shortly after moving to Italy, everyone is saying it wrong.
“I left Milwaukee and went to Italy when I was 18, and asked me to write my name down,” he says. “They said, ‘It’s Bart-o-LOW-ta.’ I said, ‘No, it’s Bart-o-lotta.’ They said, ‘NO. BART-O-LOW-TA.’
“I called my dad and he said, ‘I’ve been expecting this call, it IS actually Bart-o-LOW ta.”
Paul asked his dad why it had changed to Bartolotta, and he explained it sounded a little less ethnic.
“Anytime [brother] Joe was in Vegas or outside his Milwaukee circle, he would say, ‘Hi, I’m Joe Barto-LOW-ta’ and I’d be like, ‘Bro?’ And he’d say, ‘Eh, when in Rome.’
When Paul returned to Milwaukee after Joe passed and introduced himself as “Bar-to-low-ta,” the response was “‘Oh, isn’t he so full of himself?’” Paul says. “‘He’s so European. Joe was one of us.’ So I switched it over. Now I say my name is “Bar-to-low-ta or Bar-to-lotta — whatever is more comfortable to you!”