Nonnas on Netflix—which began streaming today—is a heartfelt tribute to grandmothers and all of their delicious home-cooking. And you’ll be even more moved by the story when you learn that this new Vince Vaughn movie, Nonnas, is based on the true story of a restaurant owner who wanted to honor his late mother and grandmother. Yes, Joe Scaravella and the Enoteca Maria restaurant are real. But if you want a seat at the table, you’ll need to make a reservation.
Directed by Stephen Chbosky, with a screenplay written by Liz Maccie, Nonnas stars Vaughn as an Italian American man, Joe, who is grieving the recent death of his mother. He impulsively decides to use his inheritance money to open an Italian restaurant. The twist? He hires Italian grandmothers, or nonnas, as chefs, in the hopes of recreating the comforting food of his childhood.
Nonnas is a heartfelt story about grief, food, and family. But the real story of Joe Scaravella and Enoteca Maria is even better. Read on to learn more about the Nonnas true story, the real Joe Scaravella, and the real Enoteca Maria.
Is the Netflix movie Nonnas based on a true story?
Yes, the Nonnas movie on Netflix is based on the true story of Jody “Joe” Scaravella and the real-life Enoteca Maria restaurant in New York City, an Italian restaurant that employs grandmothers, or nonnas, as chefs. Enoteca Maria opened in Staten Island in 2007, and still operates to this day.
What to know about the real Joe Scaravella and the Enoteca Maria restaurant:
Scaravella first opened Enoteca Maria back in 2007, after moving from Brooklyn to Staten Island in 2006. According to a 2017 New York Times profile, the restaurant owner’s mother had recently passed, just a few years after Scaravella’s grandmother died in 1999. Though not shown in the movie, the real Scaravella also lost a sister around the same time.
“After losing all those matriarchal figures in my life, I wanted to try to recreate that, you know, grandma in the kitchen cooking,” Scaravella told the Times.
As is depicted in the movie, Scaravella had a job working for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority at the time, and had zero business plan or restaurant experience. “I work from the heart more than from the head,” Scaravella told the Times. Scaravella really did use the money left by the owner’s late mother, and was inspired to try to recreate that childhood, family cooking feel. And yes, the restaurant was named after Scaravella’s mother.
“The real story behind this place is grief — my own personal grief after losing a lot of my family, and trying to re-create them,” Scaravella said in a different profile for The Washington Post.
For the first decade, Enoteca Maria was an Italian restaurant with Italian nonnas in the kitchen. That’s what you see in the movie. What you don’t see, however, is that in 2015 the real Scaravella widened the scope of the restaurant to include grandmothers from all over the world, including “nonnas” from Pakistan, Japan, Peru, Poland, and more. According to the Post, the restaurant now has two kitchens, one for the in-house Italian nonnas, and one for a rotating staff of nonnas of other cuisines. These cooks are officially called the “Nonnas of the World.”
All this said, there are certainly parts of the Nonnas movie that are not true. The four nonnas featured in the film—played by powerhouse actresses Susan Sarandon, Lorraine Bracco, Talia Shire, and Talia Shire—were all characters invented for the film, and not based on any one specific nonna who has worked at Enoteca Maria. Linda Cardellini’s character, Olivia, was also invented for the film.
It also seems that the movie greatly exaggerated Scaravella’s initial struggle to get the Enoteca Maria restaurant up and running. In fact, the concept was a hit from the beginning. According to the Post profile, “the restaurant quickly took off.” The restaurant did briefly close during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, but that was out of concern for the restaurant’s elderly staff, and not because it was failing to make money. These days, it seems, Enoteca Maria is back to its usually booked-and-busy prime. Guests are advised to make a reservation at least two weeks in advance.
Enoteca Maria is so booked, in fact, that Nonnas director Stephen Chbosky revealed that he had a hard time booking a last-minute table for his star, Susan Sarandon.
“Susan Sarandon’s assistant called me asking if Susan could go to the restaurant the next day,” Chbosky said in an interview for the Nonnas press notes. “I called Joe and he said, “Oh, I don’t really have a table for her.’ I said, ‘What?’ And he said, ‘Well, look, my regulars are coming, I’m booked. Let me see what I can do.’ He called back and said, ‘Can she come at 6:30?’ That’s who he is. He was not going to change. He was not going to sell out any of his regulars. Even for Susan Sarandon.”
Read the full article here
