Top chef dishes Italian with a dash of chicken parm in Jupiter

Joe Isidori serves up his red-sauce, New York City Italian heritage to Jupiter with Arthur & Sons.

Joe Isidori wants it known that his new Jupiter restaurant Arthur & Sons is New York City red-sauce Italian, with a 72-year heritage.

So much so, that when diners are seated, they’re given a card that says just that.

It reads in part: “This is a story of family, nostalgia, and time-worn traditions. Arthur & Sons isn’t about being fancy or showing off. It’s about honoring old-school ways with a little new-school fun.”

Isidori puts it plainly. “We’re not fine dining. We’re family-style, New York City Italian,” he said. “Italian-American. It’s specific.”

For him, old school is macaroni (his word for any pasta) with red (tomato) sauce and giant meatballs with ricotta — his mom’s recipe. The menu is familiar to all: Spicy rigatoni alla vodka, cavatelli and broccoli rabe, gnocchi alla tartufo and chicken parm — heard often in the conversation — is a signature dish. The classic spumoni to finish.

Platefuls are served atop red-checkered tablecloths in an expansive room that seats 150. It’s lined with red leatherette banquettes and tables, a long bar and hung with crystal-dripping Tiffany chandeliers.

On the walls are a mix of paintings, photos and bold graffiti — another homage to the New York streets of Isidori’s youth, that, he says, “I might have contributed to.”

Billy Joel stares out from a wall-sized portrait. Abstract art is painted by a friend of the chef’s, John Codling.

Roses are everywhere, including in the logo.

“That’s an homage to my grandma. She had a garden where she grew vegetables. We called it the rabbit run, next to the house. All along the front of it she planted rose bushes. We always had a vase of fresh roses in the house.”

Disco ball dancing on the weekends

The 3,300-square-foot restaurant in the Bluffs Square Shoppes plaza on U.S. 1 is designed as a social club, where guests are welcomed from the porte cochere as family. Open for dinner seven days with entertainment nightly, including disco-ball dancing on the weekends with a DJ, it’s already got a social media buzz.

“Entertainment is a key component,” he said.

A crooner sings “That’s Life” and other Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Bobby Darin hits for the earliest diners. Then comes the dance music.

“The DJ plays music a la Studio 54. We need a little fun up here,” Isidori said.

The crowds agree. Arthur & Sons is booked for reservations through the end of April already, but that’s by design, as well.

“I’m not flooding the restaurant right now. We’re taking a specific number of reservations per night, right around 200.”

That will give the staff a chance to get used to the service and keep things running smoothly, he said. He brought in managers from his New York version to help establish this one.

Many of the diners found his Jupiter restaurant online. “I’ve got a lot of followers.”

His social media pages are active with readers from around the globe and diners who have followed him from all his New York restaurants.

He’s been in Palm Beach County before, not always cooking for the public.

Isidori got his start in Miami at Nemo

After graduating from the Culinary Institute of America in New York in 2000, Isidori went to work at Nemo, a contemporary Miami restaurant known for sparking the careers of numerous noted chefs before closing in 2011.

Isidori was then tapped by The Trump Organization to work at Mar-a-Lago and be the corporate chef of the Trump hotel restaurants in 2004. While with them, DJT, Trump’s Las Vegas restaurant, was awarded a Michelin Star in 2009, a prize for Isidori’s resume.

Isidori was considered for a job as White House chef, but he left the group to create his own restaurants.

He opened several restaurants, including a modern seafood outpost, Southfork Kitchen in the Hamptons in 2010. He elevated pasta at Arthur on Smith in Brooklyn next. Both were critically acclaimed, but lasted less than two years.

In 2015, Isidori co-created the burger and beer chain, Black Tap Craft Burgers & Beers in New York. The fast-casual eatery became an online viral hit for its extreme milkshake creations (birthday cake, handfuls of colorful candy and more filling the glass). He and his partner expanded the chain internationally, opening stores in Singapore, Switzerland, and Dubai.

Just as the COVID pandemic hit, he worked as co-creator of Everglazed Donuts & Cold Brew at Disney Springs in Orlando.

It was in 2022 that he returned to his family’s legacy of restaurants, opening Arthur & Sons in the West Village in Manhattan. He brought back the Italian-American menu that’s now in Jupiter.

While much is the same with the restaurants, he calls the New York one “downtown.”

“New York has an indigenous downtown vision. I leaned into the neighborhood. Exposed brick walls, with a dark and clubby feel.”

“Jupiter is more ‘uptown’,” he said.

Isidori’s a showman, exuberant for the camera, who has numerous videos online demo-ing his food and bragging of contest wins for burgers and his restaurants. This fits his role as chef/owner of the restaurant.

“It’s definitely theater. I get to walk around the dining room and talk to people. It makes them feel comfortable, at the same time, like they’re special.”

Isidori, 37, chose the spot in Jupiter vacated by Uncle Eddie’s because, he said, “Authentic New York City Italian was missing here.”

He differentiates that style by explaining the evolution of Italian food in America, saying immigrants brought their recipes here in the early 1900s but had to make do with ingredients found in their new homeland.

‘Chicken parm pays the bills’

“Chicken parm. Everyone says: ‘That’s not real Italian. Nobody in Italy cooks chicken parm. And they’re right. You won’t find it on the other side of the pond. But it’s Italian-American.”

Diners in New York and down here love it, he said. 

His dad gave him advice after Isidori ventured into a number of other styles of restaurants with modern cuisine: Cook what you like, but, “chicken parm pays the bills,” he said.

The chef has eaten at several high-end Italian restaurants in the area.

“I love La Masseria (in Palm Beach Gardens). They’re fine dining. Their food is delicious. Delicate.”

By contrast, his flavors are bold and familiar, and a value. “This is the Italian you eat once a week.”

Portions are large enough to take home.

“Yes, it’s intentional. Everyone goes home with food,” Isidori said. It’s all culture-based. His grandmother wouldn’t let you leave without taking food home.

He and his family have been full-time residents of Jupiter for four years. He’s been flying back and forth to his restaurants in New York during the week but is home on weekends.

Staying close to home more often

Now, more so, he said, he’s in Jupiter after his wife, Louise, was diagnosed with Stage 4 ovarian cancer.

“She’s in remission, but I made the decision to stay here and work. I stopped traveling so much.”

He calls Jupiter his favorite city in South Florida.

He moved from Manhattan in 2020 permanently, after coming down for visits with his parents for 20 years.

“It was during COVID. I got my car out of the garage. Dust was so deep on it you could write your name in it. Nobody drives in Manhattan.”

Then there was the weather. “A game-changer,” he said. “That did it.”

He was doing some work with Everglazed Doughnuts in Disney Springs, Orlando and visiting Jupiter while here. Blue skies, shorts and no winter coats.

“My wife comes down, and 10 days later — I kid you not — my wife had bought a house across the street from my parents.”

Once established, he wanted to open a place here, sure it would be a success.

“We saw no one was doing this in this market.”

His clientele is a mix of part-time residents, locals and fans who travel just to eat here.

“We had a couple drive two hours to get here,” he said. “A lot of them are familiar with my New York restaurant.”

Thinking of expansion already

Now, people are asking for more. It’s a possibility, he said.

“I’m thinking about expanding here, but first I’ll get this one on track.”

He expects a seasonal slowdown but also thinks there’s a solid nine or 10 months of steady business.

“In summer, we’ll offer something enticing for the locals.”

Arthur & Sons is open daily for dinner only, but he’s considering lunch service on the weekends. There may be $1 off drinks in the afternoons, but as yet, no happy hour.

Diners shouldn’t expect the political card from the previous restaurant owner to be played here, either.

Eddie Lubic, of Uncle Eddie’s, had a prominent sign in front of the restaurant that read, “We are only serving patriots of the USA. If you are still a Biden supporter, this restaurant is not for you.”

“Oh, definitely not,” Isidori said, shaking his head. “We’re not playing any of that.”

 The card that’s placed on the table at the start of the meal emphasizes this.

 It reads: “As I like to say, don’t be fancy, knock it off, nobody cares, it’s just chicken parm! Now we can eat! — Chef Joe.”