Angie Rito

Angie Rito is the chef and owner of Italian-American restaurants Don Angie and San Sabino in the West Village of New York City, alongside her husband Scott Tacinelli. Angie developed a love of food and cooking from an early age, growing up in a big Italian-American family in Cleveland, Ohio where she spent the majority of her youth working in her grandfather’s Italian bakery, Rito’s Bakery, which is still open today. She was heavily influenced by her family’s food traditions and in 2007 moved to New York City to pursue her dream of working in hospitality. Angie worked her way through a number of NYC kitchens, but it was her position as a line cook at Torrisi Italian Specialties that influenced her most, where she found joy in cooking with the Italian-American flavors she grew up with and learned the value of striving for perfection with every plate. Angie and Scott met over 12 years ago working at Park Avenue Seasons in New York City - Scott working as a cook after a pivot from a career in corporate sales while Angie began as a server and quickly joined the kitchen team. What began as a friendship quickly blossomed into romance after a three-week backpacking trip across Spain in 2009. Before opening Don Angie and San Sabino, the two helmed the kitchen at Quality Italian together, where they invented the renowned “Chicken Parm Pizza." The duo also spent some time together running the kitchen at the acclaimed pop-up restaurant dinnertable. Today, Scott and Angie serve up their delicious, comforting takes on modern Italian-American cuisine in the heart of New York City’s West Village, challenging the perception of more conventional Italian-American cuisine by incorporating global flavors in subtle and surprising ways, drawing on both the foods they grew up with and their collective world travels. Don Angie has garnered a tremendous amount of critical acclaim, receiving a glowing 2-star critic’s pick review from the New York Times in 2018 and named one of Esquire’s Best New Restaurants in America in 2018. Angie and Scott earned nominations from the James Beard Foundation in 2019, 2020, and 2022. Angie and Scott live in DUMBO, Brooklyn with their young son. In her spare time, Angie enjoys traveling with her family, visiting friends’ new restaurants and developing new recipes.