By JOSEPH KELLARD
Since Sole first put down its welcome mat over two years ago, it's popularity has drawn enough recognition in town that the Oceanside Chamber of Commerce named its owners, Joe Bonacore and Robert Carmosino, its Business People of the Year.
Bonacore believes that in addition to the top quality of Sole's product, the key to the restaurants success is consistency on different levels. All his working life Bonacore has been in the restaurant business, from starting as a waiter to last owning Tuscany in Rockville Centre. He and Carmosino have worked together on and off for some 10 years, and can be found in the heat of the kitchen each night.
While they are both chefs, Bonacore cooks each night while Carmosino will mainly take orders and specials and don a chefs hat about three nights a week.
"I think the guys who last the longest are the guys who are hands on," Bonacore explained. "You care more because it's your place, so the quality of the food always stays. That's consistency."
There is consistency within Sole's staff as well. At least five staff members, including dishwashers, waiters and bartenders, have worked for Bonacore since he opened his first restaurant in Hicksville over fifteen years ago. Moreover, virtually the entire staff lives in or around the area, including the owners; Bonacore a twenty-five year resident of Oceanside, Carmosino a much more recent resident of RVC.
"We're here all the time," Carmosino said. "So when patrons see you here a lot and we're walking out of the kitchen with oven gloves on, they know you're not playing around."
Sole's casual Italian cuisine is always served with a sharp presentation, Bonacore said, and while the restaurant offers both standard and special pasta chicken and veal dishes, the restaurant's speciality is fish. Each day it offers at least five different versions of over-roasted fish, including salmon, red snapper, and bass.
Sole seats about 75 patrons at teakwood chairs and tables, who dine underneath copper-patina chandeliers whose soft lights illuminate the off-white walls. At the bar's end is a large wine rack that bears bottles of reds and whites from California, Austrailia, Italy, and Long Island, all of which are priced at $20 a bottle. In October, the restaurant expanded to include a party room, which also serves as a separate dinning room.
Bonacore describes Sole simply as "a friendly, relaxed and family oriented place." The tight-nit, hometown feel of the restaurant is made more so by some of the owners activities in the community. Located adjacent to Oceanside's Kindergarten Center, Bonacore has invited students to his kitchen to show them how to make chocolate candies. And and Carmosino have hosted dinners to benefit local breast cancer orgnizations.
Such charitable work of Bonacore and Carmosino weighed in on the Chamber's decision in selecting them as their Business People of the Year. But, of course, their success in business is key, and the crowds that gather outside their resautrant are a testament to that.
"People always think it's difficult to get in but its really not," Carmosino said. "The wait is not as long as you might think."
