Profits & Passions : John Viscovich
From tips to toes
By BOB ROZYCKI
Some things are easy to
change.
In elementary-school word games, it just
takes a letter to change food to foot.
In life, career changes can take longer.
For John Viscovich, the change came in
his 34th year.
Viscovich led a double life of sorts as
a youngster; being schooled at St. Mel’s in the
Whitestone section of Queens and in the family restaurant
business on Long Island. His dad, Bruno, opened
Cafe Continental in 1968 in Manhasset.
Viscovich started off busing tables around
the age of 7. As he got older, he worked every position
-- dishwasher, waiter, chef, sommelier, manager
-- learning every aspect of the business.
He never had “Friday nights” when he was
in high school. They were spent in the restaurant.
He continued working when he attended Fordham University,
where he earned a bachelor’s degree in finance and
a master’s in international economics.
In 1987, after he completed college, he
and his dad opened a restaurant on Second Avenue
between 49th and 50th streets in Manhattan, not
far from his cousin Lidia Bastianich’s restaurant,
Felidia. The same Lidia of “Lidia’s Family Table”
television show.
The Viscovichs named their restaurant San
Giusto, after the patron saint of Trieste, a port
city in northeast Italy on the border of Slovenia.
His dad was born in Italy, but his heritage is Croatian.
The restaurant served up Italian staples such as
osso bucco, with some Croatian influences, such
as goulash.
Robin Leach, of “Lifestyles of the Rich
and Famous,” was a regular. As was Felix Dennis,
owner of Dennis Publishing. Also stopping by for
meals was then U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan.
Viscovich made a few appearances on Leach’s show
for the then-fledgling Food Network in 1994. Becoming
friendly with Dennis also earned Viscovich a couple
of visits to the publisher’s home on the exclusive
island of Mustique in the West Indies.
Viscovich left the restaurant for about
a year and a half to give Wall Street a try. Unhappy,
he returned to the family business. But working
in a restaurant can take its toll; you don’t get
to see family and friends because you’re working
Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. It also takes a
toll on the feet, having to stand all the time.
Viscovich developed arthritis in his right ankle
as a result of a hockey injury in college. In 1996,
he decided to go back to school to learn something
new -- podiatry.
Viscovich earned his degree from New York
College of Podiatric Medicine. He commuted from
his home in Briarcliff Manor to study and also kept
working in the restaurant. Once completing college
in 2000, he began a three-year residency at Wyckoff
Heights Medical Center in Brooklyn. He encountered
a lot of foot trauma there, primarily from teenage
criminals getting hurt trying to elude the police
by jumping from fire escapes. In 2003, Viscovich
joined Larry Rockmacher at his practice in Mount
Kisco. He has since bought the practice and added
an office near his home in Somers. Viscovich’s dad
closed the restaurant in 2001.
You can take a man out of the kitchen,
but you can’t keep him from cooking.
Viscovich says he cooks every night for
his wife, Laura, and 4-year-old twins, Isabella
and Quinn. The meals are not always as complex as
the ones he used to create in the New York City
kitchen; sometimes they’re just simple salads. Even
the children join in preparation, pulling the lettuce
apart and picking their favorite cheeses, parmesan
and bleu, to accompany the salad.
His signature meal is osso bucco, which
his friends and family crave. An avid skier, Viscovich
has been known to bring up to 20 veal shanks to
Mount Snow in Vermont when he and friends have a
long weekend on the slopes. Preparing the meal is
a tedious process, from preparing the carrots, celery
and onions to stewing the shanks for up to five
hours. But once it’s done, he says there are no
complaints from those partaking in it.
And when it comes to footwear in the kitchen,
what does the good doctor recommend?
How about no shoes like another TV cook
Ina Garten, a.k.a. the “Barefoot Contessa”?
“I never cook barefoot; anything with arch
support.” Kitchen clogs are a good choice, he says.
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