Michael Rosario: A Brooklyn Bartender

Thursday night at  on Court Street in Carroll Gardens is like most other nights at this neighborhood hotspot: crowded but not unpleasant, the air rich with the promise of an excellent meal. Almost immediately to your right as you enter the restaurant is the bar. The modest but well picked selection of sprits on display and the dark wood bar are bathed in a warm golden glow. Everyone, whether a foodie visiting or a local from two blocks over, is there for the same reason: the perfectly executed southern Italian food. But the ambience is what makes Frankies a place with regulars.

Most customers begin their time at Frankies at the bar waiting, drinking and chatting. With the small open kitchen just a few feet away, the bar is the heart of the restaurant and the center of what makes Frankies feel special. Michael Rosario, one of the bartenders, plays an integral role in creating the restaurant's cozy and inviting atmosphere. His efficiency, knowledge and presence behind the bar make waiting for a table a pleasure instead of a nuisance. His friendly demeanor and the urgency with which he performs his duties make his customers feel privileged to sit there. The welcoming ambience at Frankies that begins with the smell of the food is made complete by the hum of Michael's happy customers.

On a recent Thursday night, a dark haired, middle-aged woman is eating on her own at the bar, chatting with the bartender. She knows him not just from her previous experiences at Frankies, but also from having lived in the neighborhood all her life. Every twenty minutes or so she scrawls what must be thoughtful sentences on her brown paper placemat, tears off what she's written, and hands it to the tall man behind the bar for approval.

That's the difficulty of being a writer, she says, you never know when inspiration will strike. He doesn't read it right away, but swiftly tucks the brown square into his apron to read later. Michael, she says, will tell her "whether or not it's any good." She keeps up a constant stream of conversation with whomever's closest by, waxing philosophical about past presidents, her son's tattoo, how much the neighborhood has changed since she was a little girl, and the best way to eat the delicious and comforting Roasted Vegetable Salad (which, according to her, is made with a generous addition of olive oil and a dash of salt and pepper).

All the while, Michael, tanned and lightly bearded, stays attentive -- but not necessarily engaged -- mixing drinks, pouring wine and taking orders.

***

Michael Rosario, forty-two, is the third generation of his family to spend their entire lives in Brooklyn. He and his father both attended the same high school in East Brooklyn and played for the school's baseball team, and his grandfather, who as a young man worked the docks in Red Hook is well-known in the neighborhoods around Frankies.

Michael now lives in the outskirts of Carroll Gardens, almost in Red Hook. Growing up in an Italian family, from a young age he was eating and cooking the kind of family style Italian food served at Frankies. He speaks most fondly of his grandmother's soups, but says that everyone in his family is passionate and more than capable in the kitchen. Their large family gatherings always included cured meats, cheese plates and bowls of pasta.

Perhaps it's fitting for a guy from the neighborhood with an understanding of and healthy appreciation for Southern Italian food to be behind the bar at Frankies.

First timers at Frankies bar describe Michael succinctly and without complaint. Professional. Efficient. Friendly. While Michael says he's known for being a fastidious bartender and not one for conversation, as soon as someone from the area or a regular customer sits down on one of his barstools, that changes. It's clear his job is his priority, but as soon as he's familiar with you he is friendly, warm and encouraging. He doesn't seem to forget a face and appears genuinely glad when someone he's seen before arrives at the bar.

When taking your order, Michael half sits, half leans on the cooler and angles himself toward you; as if he's about to let you in on a secret or impart a pearl of wisdom. He perches there for a few minutes with his pen and pad, offering recommendations and never making you feel rushed no matter how quickly he had been pouring drinks just seconds before. Always in a simple button up shirt with a short, well-groomed beard he strikes a presence behind the bar.

Like Michael, the other bartenders at Frankies are all pleasant, helpful and competent, while remaining unobtrusive. They never interject if not asked, but when questioned are always eager to help and can recommend what beverage will be right for your meal.

Working the bar at Frankies on a weekend, like Michael does, is no easy task, and it is conceivable that the men behind the bar would be too busy to engage fully with their customers.

Michael knows his food and has an extensive knowledge of wine and of the drinks he mixes, but he's also worked many jobs on the side, as bartenders often do. He once owned a laundromat, he's a father and currently works repairing and restoring homes. 

When Michael talks his eyes crinkle with a knowing look. Whether it's about his family, his love for the neighborhood or his time at Frankies, he speaks enthusiastically of his life as a bartender and of all that he's learned from Frank Falcinelli and Frank Castronovo, Frankies' two owners. He does this in a way that does not devalue the words, but that makes you all the more certain of his appreciation for whatever it is he's talking about.

***

It's Thursday night again at Frankies and Michael is there greeting the customers he knows, recommending which red wine to have with the cavatelli and making drinks for every customer in the restaurant. This time it's not a local mom sharing her writing and eating at the bar, but three groups of young hip Brooklynites.

On one end of the L-shaped bar a trendy red-haired woman asks her Mohawk-ed friend who his agent is, while a few seats down another attractive young pair talk about her jewelry line and his success "securing that new vampire film." It's a very different crowd, but they still know Michael by name and thank him as they leave.

When asked why he likes working at Frankies Michael brings the conversation around to his grandfather: "I feel like I'm at home, to be honest with you… I feel like I'm back at home with my family, and honestly the sense I get is that I'm living in my grandfather's shoes. He would always stand behind the bar, make people feel welcome, and feel like they had a wonderful experience and not feel they were at a place that was pretentious. He had a knack for that, that comfort."

It's a knack that is seemingly genetic.