Meet Sebastiano Zanon | Restaurant Manager

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sebastiano Zanon and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sebastiano, what is the most important factor behind your success?
There’s more than one factor that goes into the recipe of hospitality success.

-Ambience
-Quality
-Service
-Hospitality

Experience wise, being in hospitality, I biggest factor of our success is our presence, taking care of the details.

Dining out is now a whole experience, from the beginning to the end. Not just the food, the ambience, the flavors, the scents, everything stands in the details. Once everything comes together, a experience is created and remember through the years. I still remember about some dinners I had when I was a teenager, it means it left something in me. In my case, a particular wine still gives me positive memories after many years.

Details are so important, if one thing goes wrong, the whole experience collapses, our daily job is to match the levels of all the details, and unconsciously we will create a positive ambience.

Another factor is quality, If you buy quality products, you are 90 percent on the right track, a spark of creativity, and a nice presentation and the dish turns into art.

Service is imperial to our daily operation, also very detailed. Try dropping a fork in the restaurant, the whole staff will turn their heads. The training we commit to is very consistent. We are proud to have such attentive and friendly personnel.

And finally, Hospitality, we called our company Hospitalian, being that we are Italian, we welcome guests as if it were our house, we treat them like guests, not simply customers.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Nothing was easy, I started as a Busser and built my way up to managing and owning my restaurant. My father and I are on the floor with our guests daily, this is was sets up apart from our competition. I challenge you to find a restaurant owner actually serving their guests in Miami. There’s maybe one or two I can think of.

Challenges are of the order of the day , we wear many hats, our day is constantly finding solutions to unexpected problems. We overcome by being informed, educated and being able to think of quick solutions to anything.

Lessons I’ve learned along the way is that it doesn’t matter what you did in the past, you are only as good today.

We recently opened Tullio Ristorante Italiano, run by my father Lucio and I. Tullio was our grandfather and father, a fish merchant in the Rialto Fish Market in Venice, called the seafood jeweler by his colleagues and customers for always having the freshest fish. We will continue his legacy by serving fresh seafood to our guests daily.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
-Mister 01 top of the list, the best Pizza in Town.

-Mila, great cocktails, incredible Miami vibe.

-Borti’s Pasta Bar, when you are feeling pasta.

-Cipriani Downtown- Italian Elegance in the form of a restaurant

-Doma- A modern Italian

-Go watch a game of Inter Miami

-Salvaje for a rooftop sunset drink

-Joia Beach for an aperitif.

-Sugar and Tea Room with a drink with views

-Cote- Korean Steak house

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
There’s many colleagues that shaped me and built me.

The first is my father Lucio who I look up to every day. He is elegance in person, and has a story to teach daily.

Colleagues I’ve worked with that deserve a shoutout are:

Mauro Bortignon: Borti’s

Sergio Russo: Euro Wines

German Rizzo : Plado Nyc

Riccardo Usai and Max: The Bath Club

Ryan Vando: Zuma

Marco Nardi: Cipriani

Website: www.tulliomiami.com

Instagram: @tulliomiami

Facebook: tulliomiami