OUR STORY
If you’ve reached this page it’s because you care about something more than pasta. And so do we. Restaurants are the cornerstones of communities, a place for people to meet, discuss and build camaraderie among citizens. A place we share thoughts and build ideas.
When we first opened Pisticci in 2002 it was a new venture for us, having no prior restaurant experience. Our goal was simple; create a neighbor restaurant, the type we enjoyed going to.
We have grown since then both in size and understanding of what restaurants are, or could be. We stopped looking at Pisticci as only a restaurant but as a place for change. And we wanted to know if a business could continue to do well while doing good. That’s when we started looking at our triple bottom line: People, Profit, Planet.
The first step was our own front door. We started profit sharing with our employees, set up flextime so they control their own hours and respect their goals. This is New York, our staffs are inspiring artists, we know that and know our place in their lives.
From there we opened our door and had a good hard look at how we do business and the effects that business has on our global environment. Personally we have always had an affinity for the natural world, but it was here that we decided to stop talking and start doing. We became a Green Certified Restaurant, New York’s first Carbon Neutral, we switched from convention energy to renewable energy and went through our operation with a fine tooth comb to cut back our usage.
We took that personal commitment and spent the past three years developing an organic urban farm. From there we came to better understand the connection between good food, our health, the environment, and our community. That understanding inspired us to start our own farm, Pisticci Full Circle Farm.
At Pisticci Full Circle Farm we are turning restaurant food waste into premium quality vegetables. We are closing the cycle: regenerating land rather than contributing to land fill and climate change. Our farm practices low impact, intensive growing principles. We grow on small plots, less than an acre, without the use of chemical inputs or heavy machinery. Our inputs are derived from the organic matter reclaimed from our restaurant, and grow upholding to strict organic principles. The organic matter is derived from our food scraps, your diner napkins and all our paper products. We compost all this material behind our restaurant then take it up to our farm where it feeds the seedlings that, when mature, will make it back to your plate. Then the process starts again.
All this is possible because of our truly amazing staff that does all the heavy lifting, and the support from so many regular customers.
Thank you for taking the time to read about and be part of the Pisticci story.
Respectfully,
Michael and Vivian Forte
