A PLACE AT THEIR TABLE: When he’s not working at one of his restaurants or judging “Top Chef,” Tom Colicchio enjoys playing guitar in his 3,000-square-foot, four-bedroom penthouse duplex. (David Rosenzweig (4))
The duplex includes a sun-drenched dining area. “The light is so bright and happy,” Colicchio’s wife, Lori Silverbush, says of their Meatpacking District residence. (
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A signed Shepard Fairey print, one urging for immigration reform (
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A wood and fleece rocking sheep (
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With his growing Craft Restaurants empire and a regular gig as head judge on “Top Chef,” Tom Colicchio could be living large anywhere. But he’s remained in the Meatpacking District building he moved to in 1996.
“I needed to find a place quickly,” says the chef, restaurateur and TV personality of his first apartment there. “It was a one-bedroom but technically a studio because it was one room.” But it also had one huge plus: It overlooked the Hudson River. Colicchio and his wife, Lori Silverbush, fell in love with the view.
They met in 1994 when she was working at his former restaurant, Gramercy Tavern, while pursuing a career as a filmmaker. “She sexually harassed me,” Colicchio, 50, jokes. When the couple was finally ready to get married in 2001, they realized they needed a bigger space but had become attached to the river view.
“Every time we’d go to look at a place, it wouldn’t have a view of the water. We thought we’d rather live in one room that looks at the water rather than 10 rooms looking at a brick wall,” Silverbush, 43, remembers.
Right before the couple left for Martha’s Vineyard to tie the knot, they received a call that a larger apartment had opened up in the building. They took one look and immediately said yes.
“The light is so bright and happy,” Silverbush says of their 3,000-square-foot, four-bedroom, four-bathroom penthouse duplex. The downstairs was originally one big living-dining-kitchen space until the couple acquired the apartment next door and created two expansive living areas and a playroom for their children — Luka Bodhi, 3, and Mateo Lev, 2. (Colicchio also has an older son, Dante, 19, from a previous relationship.)
The expansive, sun-filled great room has an open kitchen, a dining area and two lounging areas, one playfully accented by an oversized red Max floor lamp. “When people come into the house, they always ask about it. I just think it’s whimsical and playful,” Silverbush says.
Silverbush’s latest purchase is a Breville Fast Slow Cooker that, true to its name, dramatically cuts cooking time. Colicchio is happy with it, too. “It’s genius. I can make chicken soup in 25 minutes,” he says in a rare moment of elation not seen even when he talks about his vintage guitar collection, which includes a 1944 Martin 000-18 acoustic small body.
“It’s all original, the tuners are original, there are no cracks in it, no work that’s been done. It hasn’t had a neck reset,” Colicchio says. He carefully takes it out of the case and plays a bluesy lick. “It’s not loud,” he says matter-of-factly.
What does get him charged is talking about Silverbush’s new film, “A Place at the Table,” co-directed by Kristi Jacobson. He’s an executive producer on the documentary (now playing in theaters and on demand) and appears in it talking about the hunger problem in America that people don’t often discuss.
“Poverty’s the problem. The majority of people think people going hungry aren’t working and are lazy, but the fact is that the majority of the people receiving food stamps are working,” Colicchio says.
Silverbush first got the idea for the project when she was mentoring a student through Groove With Me (a nonprofit that brings arts programs and dance classes to girls in East Harlem) and discovered that the student’s problem focusing on her studies stemmed from being hungry. The film documents a fifth-grader in similar circumstances in a rural area and a young mother in Philadelphia whose struggle to feed her children actually intensifies when she finds a full-time job and loses her food-stamp benefits.
“The minimum wage needs to rise,” Colicchio says. “If you’re working full-time and making minimum wage, you’re living in poverty. That’s crazy.”
In his own business, the restaurateur sees his role as helping others tap into their passions. “A lot of what I do is inspiring the people around me,” he says. When he was transforming Craftsteak into Colicchio & Sons and creating the beer list for the tap room, a server, Chase Rabenn, approached him. “He said, ‘I’m really into beer,’ so he started taking meetings with the beer companies and distributors. He’s now the beer director there.”
As for his own interest in liquor, Colicchio admits that he sometimes goes two weeks without a drink, but in the winter he prefers bourbon. “Every Christmas, I get a bottle of a good old-fashioned single-barrel, and it usually lasts me through the year.”
His latest purchase, a bottle of Angel’s Envy, remains unopened in a cabinet next to the large walnut dining table made by British designer Matthew Hilton that’s the centerpiece of the great room.
“It’s really cool because you can open it up and seat 15 people around it, which we like to do,” Silverbush says. Hanging above is a chandelier made by a friend using old pipes. “He’s an artisan who’s scraping by making beautiful work.”
Nearby are two signed Shepard Fairey prints. One, in support of gay rights, reads “Defend equality, love unites,” while the other, pleading for immigration reform reads, “We are human.”
The poster also speaks to the driving message behind Silverbush’s film, which promotes a living wage for all workers. “I want to keep those kind of important messages around the kids,” she says.
Tom Colicchio & Lori Silverbush’s
Favorite things
*The Matthew Hilton extending table
*The BDDW ladder chairs
*Colicchio’s 1944 Martin 000-18 guitar
*The signed Shepard Fairey prints including one urging for immigration reform (below)
*The Breville Fast Slow Cooker
*Pottery gratins from Le Fanion
*The wood and fleece rocking sheep
*The Michael McHale chandelier
*The handmade fish mug made by
Tom’s son, Dante