Brooklyn-born Adam Lener learned how to cook in a pizzeria when he was nine. Today, he specializes in signature Italian dishes…with a twist
by Jessica Jones-Gorman • Photos by Amessé Photography
Long before he perfected his legendary marinara, or buttery chicken batter (with Cap’n Crunch cereal as its pivotal ingredient), Adam Lener was just a kid from Canarsie, trying to earn a buck.
“We grew up on welfare, so when I was nine, my objective in life was to never be poor,” Lener recalled. “I would rake leaves or go food shopping for old ladies…whatever it took to earn a few dollars. I used to bag groceries in Waldbaums, and one day I walked over to the pizzeria to count change. They asked me to wash pots in the kitchen, so I did. Just being in that environment, watching the food being made, piqued my curiosity.”
So Lener hung around. He gradually took on other kitchen tasks: chopping, prepping, stirring, seasoning. By the time he was a teen, he was obsessed with the craft. “I really believe that cooking is either part of you or it’s not,” Lener said. “I’ve loved it from the start.”
He chose, however, a job outside of the culinary industry, because the money was better. He was working in the World Trade Center during the 1993 bombing and was hurt in the explosion—an event which altered the path of his career.
“I was out on disability and decided to go to culinary school because I needed a change,” he said. “When I graduated CIA [The Culinary Institute of America], I took a chance and opened up my own place.” He and his partner launched John John’s Brick Oven Café in Eltingville in May of 1996. There, he essentially took the orders, cooked the pizzas, and hopped in his car to deliver them. Five months in, the partners split and Lener created Portobello Café.
“At first, the café menu was basic Italian,” Lener said. “But over the years, I’ve added some Asian influences, some French dishes…made things more eclectic. The focus of the restaurant is still Italian, but today you’ll also find Kobe beef sliders with candied bacon, caramelized shallots, and a black truffle aioli. There’s also a Sriracha infused tuna tartar served over fresh avocado, and a sesame crusted tuna steak. Everyone around us had the same sort of redundant menu, so I added those types of dishes to differentiate ourselves from the competition.”
Yet Lener’s favorite kitchen concoction remains simple.
“I still love to cook my marinara most,” the chef said. “It’s so basic: fresh Italian tomatoes, garlic, butter, and salt. It really blows people away, and it serves as the base for so many other dishes.”
Southern barbecue is a personal favorite of Lerner’s as well, so there’s pulled pork, beef brisket and baby back ribs on his menu, too. And Lener’s House Pasta has a respectable following on Staten Island’s South Shore.
“It’s a combination of garlic, sauteed onions, prosciutto, sun-dried tomatoes, and shitake mushrooms in a cognac cream sauce, finished with peas and parmigiano reggiano and served over rigatoni,” the chef said.
These popular recipes have caused continuous expansion at the Hylan Boulevard hotspot (when it opened in 1996, there was a seating capacity of 28 in the dining room; today it’s about triple that size), but Lener is just happy to keep doing what he loves on a daily basis.
“I feel as though cooking has always been a part of me,” he concluded. “I am so happy to still be doing what I love.”
Portobello Café
4221 Hylan Blvd. / 718.356.2233 / portcafesi.com
