Francesco Realmuto’s Dual Vision: Ficuzza and Realmuto Alta Pasticceria Italiana Bring Italy’s Past and Present to New York

In a city with more Italian restaurants than some regions of Italy, the question is no longer whether the food is good. The plates may hold the right ingredients, the wines may list the correct appellations, but without a sense of place and purpose, even the most skillful cooking risks feeling interchangeable.

Hospitality, when it works, solves that problem. It turns a restaurant into a cultural portal where flavor is inseparable from memory and service is as defining as the menu itself.

Francesco Realmuto has quietly distinguished himself with two distinct brands, each with its own identity, but bound together. Ficuzza is a warm, lived-in trattoria channeling 1970s–80s Sicily, where the menu, music, and service slow the pace to a Mediterranean rhythm. Realmuto Alta Pasticceria Italiana is a marble-countered jewel box of a café, serving pastries from every corner of Italy.

Ficuzza takes its name from a small forested village outside Palermo where Realmuto spent time as a child. The connection isn’t nostalgic shorthand. The restaurant’s atmosphere recalls the Sicily of his youth, not the tourist postcard.

The menu features classics such as Spaghetti con le Sarde-fresh sardines, wild fennel, and breadcrumbs-as well as Caponata di Melanzane, a sweet-and-sour eggplant medley traditionally served at room temperature. Pizzas are cooked to order and taste unmistakably fresh. The Pizza Capricciosa, topped with mushrooms, prosciutto cotto, artichokes, tomato sauce, mozzarella, and olives, never disappoints.

Photo Credit: Francesco Realmuto

Realmuto is a pasticceria inspired by the golden age of Italy – a nod to the elegance and artistry of the 1970s and 80s, when alta pasticceria italiana flourished. The textures, colors, and flavors here capture what critics have called “a window into Italy’s timeless café culture” and “a rare dedication to tradition in a modern city.”

The café showcases a curated tour of Italy’s sweet heritage: Millefoglie from the north, Torta della Nonna from Tuscany, Babà al Rhum from Naples, and from Sicily, cannoli filled to order and Cassatina Siciliana finished with almond paste. Even the Biancomangiare – a delicate almond milk panna cotta – whispers of centuries of cultural layering. For warm days, there’s the celebrated gelato, praised by food writers as “a standard-bearer for authentic Italian flavor in New York.

Photo Credit: Francesco Realmuto

With catering, Realmuto brings this experience to offices and events, offering the same coffee service, pastries, savory bites, and aperitivo spreads found in-house. It’s a vision built on uncompromising standards: ingredients chosen with care, service that feels personal, and a commitment to cultural fidelity that turns every bite into a journey through Italy’s most elegant era.

Though distinct in spirit, Realmuto and Ficuzza share the same devotion to Italian tradition, carefully chosen ingredients, and hospitality that feels personal.

Realmuto captures the golden age of alta pasticceria italiana, with pastries, gelato, and coffee culture that transport guests to another era. Ficuzza, right next door, is all about crunchy pizza and reviving the true aperitivo experience-surrounded by friends, sharing bites, and creating new stories.

Together, they make a corner of the West Village where Italy is not just remembered, but lived every day.