As an actor, radio host, and travel writer based in Beverly Hills, California, I am accustomed to seeing Hollywood celebrities and luminaries dine in Los Angeles-area restaurants…particularly those serving Italian cuisine.
I have personally seen, for instance, Hugh Grant, LL Cool J. and Chris Rock at Culina, the restaurant inside the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills.
For decades, Dan Tana’s has been frequented by big-name stars. In my time frequenting that intimate, red-sauce/checkered-table-clothed Chianti closet, I have seen and even met Gene Simmons, James Woods, Parker Posey and Kevin Connolly.
Craig’s is a bread-roll’s throw away from Dan Tana’s. It was also founded by its former maître d, Craig Susser, who, according to Shutterstock paparazzi photos, has hosted the likes of Elton John, Larry King, Jennifer Lopez, Kate Beckinsale and thousands more.
A fashionable place called Funke, named for its proclaimed pasta chef Evan Funke, recently served Kim Kardashian, the Obamas, Martin Short and Eugene Levy, to name a few.
Just around the corner, in the Beverly Hills Golden Triangle, E. Baldi is a lauded lunch spot known to be frequented by Al Pacino, Joe Pesci and Warren Beatty – sometimes at the same table. Chef Edo Baldi’s Tuscan cuisine is delicate, delicious and even decadent.
And in that neighborhood, I spotted “Saturday Night Live” television star John Lovitz at a sidewalk table munching Mulberry Street Pizza.
Billy Baldwin said “hello” while dining with his music star wife, Chynna Phillips at Piccolo Paradiso (small heaven) on South Beverly. Meanwhile, I sat with his friend Andrea Eastman, casting director for the Oscar-winning film “The Godfather.”
La Dolce Vita, on Santa Monica Boulevard, was a favorite of Frank Sinatra, as was Carmine’s, a little further west. Italian restaurants abound in Beverly Hills, so close together one could not even burn off too many carb calories walking between them.
These include Il Cielo, Gucci Osteria (by Italy’s super chef Massimo Bottura), Il Pastaio, Il Fornaio, Ciccone, Via Alloro and La Scala, to name a few more.
There are also Rao’s, Mother Wolfe (again, by Funke), and Miceli’s, which are admired Italian eateries in Hollywood.
Hollywood in Venice, Italy
Photo by Harrison Shiels
Those Italian restaurants are star-studded during Hollywood’s “Award Season,” which runs from the Golden Globes at the beginning of January through the Academy Awards in early March.
However, in late summer, as I read international coverage of Italy’s historic Venice Film Festival, I noticed coverage of movie stars George Clooney and Brad Pitt having a merry time at dinner in a place called Ristorante Da Ivo. As I recall, Clooney was photographed assisting the serving staff for fun with a million-dollar smile on his face.
I forwarded the festive news article to my Italian friend Giulia de Carolis, who lives in Venice with Alberto, whom she calls “Alby.” Giulia helps organize logistics for the glamorous performers and presenters who walk the red carpet and participate in the Venice Film Festival.
Guilia’s expertise as an exclusive luxury tour guide for the rest of the year in Venice serves her and the stars who make their way by boat out to the theater and venue “on the Lido” well.
Guilia leads visitors, for instance, into a quiet, empty Basilica San Marco for private access after dark. She also makes certain guests find their way to-and-from theaters and arrive on time for concerts.
She specializes in greeting people who land at Venice’s Marco Polo Airport and navigating them and their luggage to their lodging. In a watery city like Venice, this can be more complicated than it sounds.
Much of Giulia’s guide work is for the discriminating, sophisticated guests of Italy’s best bespoke travel company, IC Bellagio. This is how I met her more than a decade ago.
Giulia and Alberto also own and operate a guest house called Corte Loredana. The accommodation is located near Venice’s historic casino, not far from the train station, in the lively, local Cannaregio district.
“Cara mia, what do you think of Ristorante Da Ivo?” I messaged Giulia. “When I come to Venice next month, we must all go there for dinner.”
Giulia, originally from Puglia, said she and Alberto had not been to Da Ivo, which made it the perfect place to meet since it would be new for all of us. They had been kind to introduce me to restaurants, including La Zucca – and superb places for a spritz – in Venice. It was time I returned the favor, even though I was not a local. (Staying at their Corte Loredana, though, made me feel like a resident.)
Day Before Da Ivo Dinner
The day before our dinner at Ristorante Da Ivo, Giulia messaged, offering to introduce me to yet another unique place to drink a spritz. She told me it was a courtyard café across from San Vidal Church next to Campo Santo Stefano near the Accademia Bridge.
I was familiar with San Vidal Church, having attended an Interpreti Veneziani concert of Vivaldi music there. But Giulia explained she had to come into the San Marco area to exchange a sweater she’d bought as a gift for a family member. Therefore, she instructed me to meet her in front of the Grand Caffe Quadri on Piazza San Marco at 5 pm. From there, she would walk me to the café. (Her specialty, after all.)
The outdoor veranda in front of Quadri, circa 1775, presents a live orchestra and tables with a view of the basilica and Venice’s iconic campanile tower. It is also an excellent spot for people-watching.
I decided it would be a fine idea to arrive at 3:30 and settle in at a table to hear the live music, enjoy one of Quadri’s exquisite gelato deserts and sip locally-produced prosecco. In order to do this, one must also be prepared to dodge dive-bombing pigeons all afternoon. White-coated, black-tied servers put little mesh cages over guests’ plates and fend the birds off by squirting them with water guns.
A nearly 100-Euro tab later, Guilia arrived at 5. Her hair was down and she wore dark glasses and a quilted black coat.
“I told you to meet me ‘in front’ of Quadri, not ‘at’ Quadri,” she laughed with a shrug as I paid my bill. I bet she wanted to give me a sisterly punch in the arm, but she is too gracious and elegant for that.
Our walk to Campo Santo Stefano was pleasant, as were the uniquely flavored spritzes we drank while listening to the music from the Vivaldi concerto drifting across the sidewalk.
D Day
“Do not go to that place. The owner is awful,” Guilia’s husband Alby said the next morning, pointing out one of the storefront cafes on Campiello de l’Anconeta, around the corner from his Corte Loredana.
Alby was nice enough to meet me for a cappuccino and a pizzette on wax paper. In a city without cars, we were talking about cars—Italian Ferraris and Lamborghinis—and some politics when Giulia phoned with bad news. She was not feeling well, so she and Alby would have to cancel our dinner at Da Ivo.
“I am so upset we cannot dine together today,” she said. “If they charge you for the cancellation, I will pay for it please. I feel so bad!”
Using an English slang expression, I replied: “Bollocks!”
I made Giulia and Alberto promise me they would go again with me on one of my future visits to Venice.
I set out, alone, for Ristorante Da Ivo, named for Tuscan Ivo Natali, who opened it in 1976.
For a restaurant with such a giant reputation, its small storefront is unassuming. It is next to a bridge on the Rio dei Fuseri canal, with an entrance for arrival by water taxi or gondola designated by two red poles and a steep, three-step staircase hanging down over the water. Passengers “step in through the window.”
Da Ivo was tricky to find, though every place is amidst Venice’s labyrinth of tiny, twisting streets and sidewalk passages.
There is a burgundy-colored awning—common for Venice storefronts—with white block lettering reading “Ristorante Da Ivo,” as if it were just another gelato stand or pizza shop. An old-time light bearing the restaurant’s name on its white glass panels dangles above the awning.
The display windows on either side of Da Ivo’s split, narrow entrance doors are full of wine bottles and boxes. There are also Venetian carnival masks, photos, a sign with Chinese writing, lamps, a chalkboard, business books and a bottle of James Bond 007 champagne.
The items appear to be scattered and random, but I presume there must be some significance to those spaces, which are concealed from inside the restaurant by faux stained-glass windows backing the display box windows.
Commander and Companion
I hurried in, a few minutes late after getting lost, to find the entire little, lived-in restaurant filled and underway. The diminutive Da Ivo books two seatings each night at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., with all 38 seats typically full. Somehow, the maître ‘d managed to find me a tiny table along the wall. Relieved I was not banished, I wiggled into my seat and began to drink in the scene.
Every inch of wall space was covered with framed photos of happy diners posing with the proprietor, watercolor and oil paintings and even artwork drawn by children. Brass pots hung below Venetian masks, painted barrels, wine bottles, and a vase topped by a white uniform cap.
One section of the wall was devoted to pencil-sketched drawings, many featuring renderings of the proprietor, some signed and dated. A closer look at one revealed the signature of John Lasseter and the May 4, 2015, date upon which Lassiter, then the chief creative officer for Pixar Studios, sketched the images of the “Buzz Lightyear” and “Woody” characters from an animated film and wrote the caption “To Ristorante Da Ivo—To Infinity and Beyond!”
It occurred to me that the seemingly randomly displayed sketches, artwork, photographs, and empty wine bottles (which had dates and names written on their labels) were displayed due to some manner of significance. Damien Hirst sketched priceless artwork on a paper napkin displayed on this wall.
Stuck in my seat, I peered and perused. But I would have to shift my gaze to the menu soon.
See and Savor
Da Ivo’s tables, with red tablecloths and candles, are very close together in one room under the cozy, low ceiling. And though I was seated by myself, I was not alone for long.
A tall, neck-tied, goateed, bald server was going table-to-table presenting the details of Chef Luciano Gambardella’s menu items hand-chalked on a blackboard bordered by an ornate, gold-colored frame on a stand. The writing, in Italian, with sections in varied colors of white, blue, yellow and pink, was fanciful:
Carpaccio con rucola e Parmigiano; Risotto di seppie (antica ricetta veneziana); Branzino di mare alla griglia; Ossobuco di vitello in gremolata…to name a few menu items from various courses, each served on plates emblazoned with Da Ivo and scenes of Venezia.
The server’s performance at each table, describing the chalkboard items, was elaborate and enthusiastic and, I supposed, word-for-word, perhaps even delivered in an identical, entertaining cadence.
When that server, Rashid, reached my table, I presumed he might be snobby or intense, but he was quite the opposite. In bits of conversation between his presentation and tending to his other tables, I learned he had been working at Da Ivo for 23 years.
Rashid was friendly and his manner was that of an advisor and advocate. He steered me through the day’s menu and Da Ivo’s printed menu, which included, mainly for prices floating between 30 and 70 Euro, the likes of Paccheri Con Granseola: gragnano pasta with gransegola, tomato, parsley, and olive oil. Or Spaghetti Di Seppie Antica Ricetta Venezia with cuttlefish.
Rashid kindly suggested, amidst those and the many other choices, that I dine by course.
“Think twice,” he advised, before ordering a main beef or fish entrée/secondi piatti at the beginning of dinner. “You may be full by that point in the meal.”
After the wine, bread, antipasti and primi piatti, I was, in fact, satiated. Rashid’s advice proved to be wise and allowed me just enough appetite to conclude my experience with frutti di bosco con gelato. Molto dolce!
Orso Amore – The Bear Hug
A German couple sat on my right, while there was a table of four lively Asians on my left. I had no communication with the Germans, but I did make eye contact with one of the Asians and exchanged a quick smile. They were very animated in conversation with each other.
My back was to the wall, with the tables on either side of mine so close I would have to do a sideways shuffle if I wanted to get up and out. I would then have to square dance-dodge Rashid and another sashaying server.
The axis around which everything orbited, though, was the larger-than-life presence of a tall man with receded white hair wearing fashion-forward, white-framed, shaded eyeglasses. A slice of silk peeked out of the pocket on the chest of his black suit, under which he wore a gray shirt and, under his spread collar, a nearly monochromatic, silver-patterned necktie.
I observed that the man stood in the center of the room. The check-in position lay before him and behind his back, a wall of wine surrounding a window-like opening revealing a glimpse of the white-tiled kitchen. A bell on a shelf was mounted on the side of the window box.
In addition, I saw a serious-looking man with a short, dark beard and mustache, wearing a white shirt and a black apron embroidered with the words “Da Ivo,” leaning on his palms and scanning the restaurant from behind the scattered lemons, spice grinders and tools of the tasty trade.
As for Ristorante Da Ivo’s human centerpiece, the white-haired glacier of a man in the white glasses, I began to notice his image and likeness in the framed photos, pencil sketches and a large, looming oil painting up in the corner.
He was obviously intriguing and colorful.
Intimidated, I avoided making eye contact so as not to disturb his powerful equanimity.
However, 20 minutes later, he was seated at my table with four wine bottles between us.
Giovanni Fracassi – Owner, Manager and Docent
A shadow darkened my table and so I looked up from my now empty etched plate to see what amounted to an eclipse: the man around whom Ristorante Da Ivo orbits had rotated my way and was standing over my table. His warm, mischievous eyes beamed down from behind the white, goggle-like glasses, underscored by a grin.
Giovanni Fracassi, nicknamed “Orso” (Bear), owns Ristorante De Ivo and has been managing it in a “paws-on” fashion for 20 years. His greeting to me was a bear hug that became an engaging conversation.
Fracassi enthusiastically shared stories with me and illustrated them with props: bottles, which he went back and forth to reach and retrieve, climbing up to pull them down from the spots on the shelves where they were displayed.
Da Ivo’s menu offers 150 wines. Fracassi told me his restaurant, Da Ivo, is able to offer two or three very rare bottles a year that no other restaurant in Italy has access to. He plopped three bottles on the table in front of me. It all became a bit of a blur, but I think I have this correct:
2013 Domaine De La Romanee-Conti La Tache 2013
2015 Domaine De La Romanee-Conti Grands Echezeaux
…and
1997 Petrus Pomerol Grand Vin
Fracassi also shared with me the precious prices: molto costoso!
Then he went back to the shelf and pulled down three more:
1995 Brunello de Montalcino Soldera Intistieti Riserva
2001 Gaja Sperss 2001 Langhe
2012 Masseto Toscana
I snapped photos of the grouped bottles he presented. In between Fracassi’s trips to the shelves, I texted photos of the wines to my friend Matt Rhodes, who owns a wine shop called Dusty’s Cellar in Michigan. His response:
“Where the hell are you? This requires a serious explanation!”
Ghost Bottles of Good Times
Photo by Harrison Shiels
Then came a parade of empty bottles…and the stories that came with them. Fracassi pulled down an empty bottle of Dom Perignon with the date “2015” written on the side from between similarly marked bottles of Amarone autographed by George Clooney and Barolo – fine Italian wines.
“The customers who drank them decide when their bottles are saved and go up on display,” Fracassi explained.
I am unable to go bottle-by-bottle as Fracassi did, but the tales he told included details of the visit by Clooney, a regular, and Brad Pitt I read about a month earlier.
“They arrived by boat. Twenty security guards took care of them during that dinner,” said Fracassi. “Shimon Perez, when he came, had 35 security guards.”
The Israeli Prime Minister is not the only potentate to have dined at Da Ivo. Prince Mateen of Brunei came in with his bride during a world tour following his wedding, as Fracassi recalled it. Emirs from Qatar, Shiekhs, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Elton John, plus U2’s Bono, who are, in their ways, charitable world forces.
“Here is a bottle the CEO of Red Bull enjoyed,” Fracassi said, tilting the bottle toward me.
Fracassi in Frame – His Photos With Notables
Fracassi was not boastful but charming in the way he recounted these memorable moments with a shrug. Displaying photos on the walls of visits is a practice not uncommon for restaurants frequented by celebrities.
Ristorante Da Ivo’s limited wall space prompted Fracassi to publish an album with a gallery of photos. He placed it on the table for me to peruse and ask questions, which, of course, I did when I paged through the book.
There was “The Bear” himself, Fracassi, with Woody Allen, Michael Jordan, Michael Caine, Alicia Keys, Jane Fonda and Sting, to name a few. It looked like a professional and family affair when Rami Malek and Jake Gyllenhaal, who both appeared in the film Run Baby Run, were in photos with Jake’s sister Maggie and her husband Peter Sarsgaard—also both actors.
Yes, there was a photo of “Diddy” (Sean Combs), Disney’s CEO Bob Iger and starlet Pamela Anderson. Music entertainers with talents as diverse as Andrew Lloyd Webber, Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and Ozzy Osbourne dined in that little room. So have actors Michael Douglas and his wife Catherine Zeta-Jones, Tom Cruise and his then-wife Katie Holmes, Anne Hathaway, Adrien Brody, Donald Sutherland, Jude Law and Catherine Deneuve.
Well, you get the picture…of the pictures.
Grazie Mille, Ristorante Da Ivo and Don Fracassi
For a man who walked into a restaurant alone, late, for the first time, and without George Clooney, Fracassi, and Rashid made me feel welcome: accoglienti! Grazie Mille!
I won’t ever return to ancient Venezia without booking, or at least trying to book, a table at Ristorante Da Ivo. And if I am ever fortunate enough to be in Venice during the film festival, I can only imagine what movie star might be at the next table. But I truly hope Giulia and Alby are at mine.
Ristorante Da Ivo is closed on Sundays and during the month of January.
Read more of Michael Patrick’s work at The Travel Tattler and contact him at [email protected] Order his book Travel Tattler – Less Than Torrid Tales at https://amzn.to/3Qm9FjN
- Spend a Life at Sea Amidst Crystal Cruises Cuisine and Cache - April 19, 2025
- Italy’s Underexplored Imola Hosts High-Profile Party-Inside IC Bellagio’s Bash - April 1, 2025
- Ristorante Da Ivo – a Dive into Venice’s Culinary Celebrity Cucina - March 16, 2025