With 15 years of business expertise, Gabriella Borg Costanzi’s journey began with a serving job at 15. At 19, she moved to London and subsequently grew to become a Common Supervisor at 22.
From numerous new openings to in-house choices, her stint with a big firm was invaluable. After discovering a ardour for wine in a small plate, Spanish & Italian-inspired restaurant, Gabriella briefly explored consulting and ventures exterior the business earlier than returning to affix the opening staff at Flor, the second restaurant of the Lyle’s staff. Transferring onto Assistant Common Supervisor at Lyle’s, she pursued a WSET diploma and reshaped the Wine program.
Amidst the challenges of beginning at Lyle’s in 2020, through the pandemic, Gabriella emphasised the business’s want for sustainability, particularly specializing in psychological and bodily well-being. Her dedication deepened by engagement with Kelly’s Trigger. A stunning job supply prompted her transfer to DC, the place she assumed the function of GM and Wine Director on the two-Michelin-starred Pineapple & Pearls, adopted by a transfer a yr later to the Wythe.
Gabriella began at Le Crocodile in April 2023. Situated in Williamsburg’s Wythe Lodge, Le Crocodile is an all-day neighborhood brasserie from Chef Companions Jake Leiber and Aidan O’Neal (of beloved Greenpoint restaurant Chez Ma Tante), serving earnest French fare in a setting impressed by their Parisian and New York favorites. As Service & Wine Director, Gabriella explains that the main focus is on generosity with their time, persistence, and data.
“With regard to wine, it’s the identical: winemakers we wish to showcase and wines we’re proud to pour with none inaccessible wall between the particular person serving the wine and the particular person ingesting it.”
The inspiration for the beverage program at Le Crocodile is straightforward; little or no added, little or no taken away. Le Crocodile provides meals and wine pairings by personal eating and their Membership du Vin dinners. For Gabriella, it’s all in regards to the feeling she will get in regards to the meals and wine. “How concentrated is the flavour of the meals? How concentrated is the wine? How ripe, plush, dense, lean does this really feel? Does the depth of the meals match the depth of the wine? What’s the feeling you have got while you’re consuming and ingesting it? What’s the dream wine for this dish?”
Friends can anticipate generosity, enjoyable, heat, and the liberty to indulge when visiting. Le Crocodile strives for tight requirements in order that their personalities can shine by. Gabriella is aware of that many individuals discover wine intimidating. “Wine will be costly, particularly if it’s not someplace you often put your cash, so, the sommelier ought to actually be discovering out what it’s you wish to drink, what expertise you need and what would make dinner particular. And infrequently, that isn’t the case.
The suggestions that so many visitors really feel uncomfortable in eating places the place wine performs an enormous function, that they find yourself simply saying ‘sure’ to one thing as a result of they really feel awkward attempting to speak extra after they don’t have the lingo, or they are saying ‘no’ to all pure/natural/biodegradable wine as a result of that one bottle they’d was defective and somebody advised them that was ‘terroir,’ I imply what, an inhospitable expertise that’s.” Their servers and sommeliers are happy with what they’re serving and wish folks to take pleasure in themselves. “We’re not attempting to reinvent the wheel – we’re a brasserie and no matter we will we wish to do it nicely, and constantly.”
