Since moving to New York’s Queens neighborhood as a child in the mid-80s, Carlo Bordone has evolved from working in the family’s general contracting business, to opening his own construction business, to his present role as a developer/builder for residential and mixed-use projects in Queens. Carlo has been involved in the construction of over 10 restaurants in Manhattan, including Pepolino, a Zagat-rated (24 for food) Italian eatery in Tribeca, at which Carlo was also restaurant partner. Testaccio is the first restaurant for which Carlo is the developer, builder and co-owner.

Like his brother Carlo, a contractor-turned-restaurant owner, Paolo Bordone spent the past decade helping build some of Manhattan’s most high-profile restaurants, including Megu and Tenjune. In total, Bordone was involved in the construction of over a dozen restaurants throughout the city, using the time to analyze what restaurant concepts and designs were successful, and why. Bordone leveraged his restauranteur insights and became a partner, developing and building LIC’s Testaccio, the neighborhood’s first Roman Italian eatery, and one of only a dozen fine dining restaurants in the New York area that specialize in Roman cuisine.

A longtime corporate executive based in Rome, and now an entrepreneur with various culinary endeavors, Alviero is the Testaccio restaurant partner with his “ear to the ground” on food trends. Based in Rome, with the classic Italian passion for food and wine, Alviero contributes to the restaurant’s menu every day by distilling the latest culinary trends from Rome and greater Italy, and filtering them to Executive Chef Ivan Beacco. The result is a menu that is utterly contemporary and relevant, showcasing the way Rome’s restaurant patrons eat and drink today, and cooked with many of the exact same ingredients and techniques used in Rome. Alviero’s food philosophy: you can’t be authentic unless you live it, and he lives it every day, consulting on Testaccio’s menu and operations and scouting Rome-based food vendors for many of the restaurant’s signature dishes. Alviero owns and operates Cornetteria Terminal C, a pastry shop, and La Fraschetta da mi zio, an Italian tapas bar, both in Rome; and also opened a chain of ice cream shops with Carpignani, the prominent gelato maker.

Ivan Beacco is an 11-year veteran of New York’s fine Italian dining scene, having worked as executive chef in the kitchens of La Iocanda dei Vini, Carmaya Restaurant and most recently at Pepolino Restaurant as Chef de Cuisine and Borgo Antico as Executive Chef, prior to opening Testaccio. Beacco, a native of the seaside town Trieste who moved to New York from Italy in the late 90s, brings a passion for authentic Roman cuisine to the New York food scene. Chef Ivan’s participation in Chefs of the GVCI (Virtual Group of Italian Cooks), a network of over a thousand professionals in Italian oenogastronomy who work all over the world, has influenced his own cuisine immensely. GVCI participation is about rediscovering the original recipes from regions in Italy, and keeping faithful to the real deal. Nothing’s more down to earth or real than Roman cuisine. In his six years of participation, and experience across New York, Chef Ivan has honed his expertise in the best of Roman cooking. Emphasizing simplicity of ingredients and technique, creative dishes based on offal and modern presentation, Beacco’s Contemporary Roman cuisine includes such dishes as: coda alla vaccinara (braised oxtail), trippa in umido (veal tripe) and capesante gratinate (baked sea scallops). Beacco’s daily inspirations: the recipes and teachings of Roman chef Luigi Carnacina, recognized for his classic Great Italian Cooking cookbook, and the Italian culture and restaurant scene both in New York and Rome, which challenges Beacco to experiment lovingly with iconic Italian dishes and authentic recipes.