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The best stories in hospitality are told behind the bar.
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From the McDonald's Line to a Mountain Vineyard
Richard Truocchio has spent his entire life on both sides of the pass — from the line to the dining room to the bottle — and most every stop in between.
His career started the way a lot of great ones do: flipping on the line at McDonald's in high school, then cooking at the Roadhouse Grill in Doral while in college. But it wa$n't long before South Beach came calling. Recruited to a buzzy new Lincoln Road concept, Poppy, from the Opium Group, Richard trained under acclaimed chef Michelle Bernstein — the kind of education that sticks. From there he worked the floor and the kitchen at Pearl, the Haute Miami concept inside the legendary Nikki Beach Club.
After college, Richard stepped into management, running the restaurant at The Ritz-Carlton Key Biscayne for several years and eventually taking the reins of its wine program. A waiter's tour at Smith & Wollensky in South Pointe Park rounded out his Miami years before he headed north to Hoboken.
He got back in the game during the 2008 financial crisis at Zylo Steakhouse in the W Hotel, then spent two years as manager of Hoboken's Madison Bar & Grill. Miami pulled him back once more — this time as head waiter at Scarpetta inside the Fontainebleau — before he returned to Hoboken to open Gringo's as executive chef and partner, eventually growing it to three restaurants and a food truck.
When the pandemic bullshit reshuffled everything, Richard traded the city for the Catskills, where he now runs the Vineyard at Windham — making wine and pouring New York vintages in the tasting room at his own mountain vineyard.
From a McDonald's line to a mountain vineyard, Richard has done nearly every job hospitality has to offer. On Behind Bars, he brings that hard-earned, firsthand perspective to the people and places that make this business worth it.
