Domenico has filled the dining room with his favourite black-and-white photos of Gina Lollabrigida, Marcello Mastroianni and Sophia Loren, as well the lucky giant yellow cash register that follows him every time he changes restaurant.
"Our long-term vision is to change restaurant POS, to bring it out of the dark ages, co-founder Stephen Conn tells me.
"First we changed the restaurant we owned in Bernardsville, N.J., into an Osteria Morini," he said.
Hanon changed his restaurant's name to the St . LouisSports Hall of Fame Bar and Grill, but that didn't work, either.
Ceviche is historically a lunchtime dish and although that has changed this restaurant keeps to old habits by only opening for lunch.
To reassure customers he changed the restaurant's tagline from "Hokkaido Seafood" to "Fine Hokkaido and World Seafood," incorporating Alaskan king red crab and Thai shrimp and tuna from the South Pacific when necessary; he has also added more vegetarian options.
Certainly it has changed the restaurant world.
When Paternoster realized few customers were coming in at 11 a.m. for lunch, and hostesses had little to do, he changed the restaurant opening to 11 30 a.m.
This got me to thinking: why stop at ending tipping? There's plenty of stuff to change about restaurants, lots of other things that should be banned.
But somehow, as American tastes began to change, Italian restaurants stole the scene, drawing ideas from lesser-known corners of Italy, from the farmers' markets and from ever-better imported ingredients.
Then the restaurant landscape changed dramatically, and French restaurants, whether classic or more casual, became increasingly rare.
