Photograph by Ryan Olein

Room to Move: Giuseppe Salsiccia started his way up the reastaurant food-chain when a customer gave him a tip, and offered him a job.

A decade-long culinary journey from busboy to restaurateur

Giuseppe Salsiccia worked in some great eateries on the way to his own in Campbell

By Shari Kaplan

In 1981, Giuseppe Salsiccia, owner of the downtown Campbell restaurant bearing his name, got his first taste of the restaurant business as a busboy in an establishment run by his friend Francois Bouvet. While dreaming of more lucrative jobs, Salsiccia cleared glasses and dishes for five months. One day, a patron left him a tip, complimented him and invited him to become a waiter in a Woodside restaurant.

Bouvet wasn't sure his eager but inexperienced charge was ready, but told Salsiccia to go ahead and take the job with his blessing. Before leaving, Salsiccia confided in his soon-to-be-former employer that he had greater aspirations: to own his own eatery. Bouvet predicted that would take about a decade.

His words proved prophetic, as Salsiccia opened Giuseppe, on South Central Avenue, in August 1992.

Along the way to ownership, Salsiccia worked at many of the best restaurants thoughout the South Bay Area, using each job as an opportunity to learn about the business. He spoke to chefs, to managers and to other waiters.

His greatest advancement in one place came at the now-defunct Duey's Prime Ribs. To get the job, he had "exaggerated" the job experience part of his résumé. Although undiscovered, this little fib proved a self-fulfilling prophecy--within a month, Salsiccia's hard work and skills earned him the position of head waiter.

He later waited tables and supervised at the St. Claire in downtown San Jose, and helped the original owners of Saratoga's Bella Mia come up with a name that reflected its Italian flavor and ambiance--bella mia means "my beautiful." He also helped open On the Ritz in Sunnyvale, and worked for three and a half years at Palermo in downtown San Jose.

"At that time, I felt I was ready to think about opening my own restaurant. So I started saving my money. And then this place became available," he says of his classy Campbell location.

Although he operated in the red initially, Salsiccia has realized enough profits to open a new Italian bistro and lounge in the Willow Glen area of San Jose this month. [Please see accompanying story.]

Although running restaurants doesn't allow him as much time as he'd like to spend with his wife and baby son, Salsiccia says he loves his business.

"I like people and I like seeing the same people, learning their names, seeing them meet, get married and have children," he says. "I also like serving something good that people really like."

Giuseppe has no shortage in that department. The lunch and dinner menus--each divided among antipasto (appetizers), insalata é zuppa (salad and soup), pasta and entrees--are loaded with authentic dishes in Salsiccia's favorite style: traditional.

For starters, there are delicacies such as grilled eggplant with garlic, onions, capers, sun-dried tomatoes and goat cheese; deep-fried calamari and zucchini; and carpaccio--thinly sliced raw beef, capers and grated Parmesan cheese with mustard, extra virgin olive oil and a dash of lemon.

Soups and salads run from standbys like minestrone and Caesar salad to more exotic mixtures. Pasta favorites and other entrees that Salsiccia says diners won't find elsewhere include veal forte--made with capers, Sicilian olives and balsamic vinegar; salmon funghetti--grilled fish with mushrooms and green onions, complemented by a lemon-butter white wine sauce; and penne arrabiatti--penne pasta combined with garlic, onions, anchovies, capers, sun-dried tomatoes and a touch of hot peppers.

No Italian restaurant would be complete without desserts, and at Giuseppe they're all made on the premises. That includes decadent tiramisu, which Salsiccia notes has diners coming back for more and more. A full bar is also available.

It's not just the food that makes diners into repeat customers. It's also Salsiccia's friendly manner, appropriate to his cozy restaurant. And Salsiccia has every reason to feel this warmth for patrons. It was, after all, the tip he received as a humble busser nearly 20 years ago that helped get him started on the path that led him throughout the Bay Area before coming to a stop in downtown Campbell, and his very own restaurant.

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