THIS INVITING LITTLE SILVER RISTORANTE BEGAN LIFE AS A SUPPER CLUB FOR THE CONTI FAMILY AND THEIR FRIENDS. NOW A NEIGHBORHOOD GO-TO, IT STILL DELIVERS THE LOVE

BY KT HARRISON PHOTOS BY ALEX BARRETO

In New Jersey, it takes a lot for an Italian restaurant to stand out. But tucked away in Little Silver, Little Buca breaks the mold. It is calm, not cacophonous. It doesn’t serve pizza, just a single-page menu of master pieces from “The Boot.” But the most remarkable aspect of Little Buca is that diners are truly treated like famiglia; you are welcomed by name, you are hugged, you are tended to and cooked for.

Family is the essence of Little Buca’s identity and success. Little Silver’s restaurant-steeped Conti family founded the 11-table neighborhood gem in 2022 as a private dining room and social club for themselves and their friends. When they opened up to local gourmets soon after, none of the intimacy was lost. “The family simply got bigger,” said Stephania Raia Conti, co-owner with her husband, chef Joe Conti. “Little Buca became Little Silver’s kitchen and dining room. Now, over half our customers settle in at least once a week.” Many are oenophiles grateful for the BYO policy, and “come in with the most incredible bottles,” added Joe Conti.

For many new customers, what proved unforgettable was a dish: perhaps Joe’s explosively flavorful Sicilian steak, or his nostalgic chicken parm from his Greenwich Village restaurant. The plate-covering parm’s perfection is abetted by almost half an organic chicken, fistfuls of farm-fresh basil, San Marzano tomatoes from the slopes of Mt. Vesuvius, and “all my experience and passion as a chef,” he said.

And that’s a lot of experience, indeed. Conti grew up in Greenwich Village (“a short walk to Little Italy”) and soaked up the food culture in Rome and Palermo, where his family owned restaurants and a Sicilian summer villa. “Even as a kid, I sensed how fantastic those ristoranti were; people just wanted to be there, and ahhh, that food,” he recalled dreamily. “I was just a teenager, a kitchen assistant, but I knew these were world-class chefs.”

Conti wasted no time making his mark in the culinary world. Back home in the Village, he opened a cozy jazz club that became “the hottest after-hours place,” he said. “The downtown chefs would meet up there after locking up, and the music people would come in after their last set in the jazz joints. It was so happening.”

Into this archetypal downtown scene wandered a Pace University freshman, Rumson-raised Stephania Raia. “New York was already so exciting,” she said. “And then I fall in love at first sight with this chef owner.”

The two well-traveled, metro-area Italian-Americans had a lot of common ground. Raia’s dad was a restaurateur, too. After building and selling a nationwide insulation company, he became a part owner of Manhattan’s iconic Italian restaurant II Mulino, which now numbers multiple branches across the country. Raia pursued a different high-end lifestyle field: fashion, managing Chanel boutiques.

She and Conti tied the knot in 2010 “with every Italian chef in town in the room,” she laughed. By then, Conti had added another specialty to his CV: restaurant builder and designer “of over 100 New York places,” he said. “No exaggeration.”

Daughters joined the couple in 2011 and 2013. Stephania longed for them to grow up around her parents in NJ and “learn first-hand how precious family is,” she said. Once Joe was persuaded to make the move quick ferry service to downtown Manhattan played a role the family of four settled in Little Silver. But one thing was missing. “I needed a project, and for my girls to see me working, like my own mom did,” said Raia Conti.

And what else would a Raia or Conti do but open a restaurant? “We both felt that Little Silver needed a homey but high-end place to eat,” said Raia Conti. “We weren’t ready to open a restaurant, but a private supper club for our extended family and old friends felt right.”

And thus, Little Buca was born, designed by Conti “as sophisticated yet casual, with comfortable seating, soft lighting, and a soundtrack that everyone could get into.” Little Buca’s is strong on classic Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, and Billie Holiday, noted Conti, who knows his jazz. The mood is glamorous but relaxed, “like the Italian restaurants in Manhattan and Rome,” he said. “Think Fellini’s ‘La Dolce Vita,’ from 1960. Great ambiance never gets old.”

The same goes for great Italian food. As the executive chef, Conti puts a deluxe spin on the soul-satisfying traditional cuisine of his family’s chefs in Palermo and Rome.

“Italy is all about eating, and Little Buca is about the best,” said the chef. “Our freshness is just beyond. Nothing comes or gets frozen. Our pasta and our mozz are made in the kitchen, and you cannot buy better fish and seafood. Our linguini with clams, it’s like you’re overlooking the Bay of Naples.”

Daily specials often showcase a toothsomely pan-seared seasonal species like langostino lobster from Chile, meaty branzino (Mediterranean sea bass), or wild-caught North Atlantic salmon. Even desserts are touched by Conti’s kitchen magic. Cannoli are filled to order with cream from Palermo, and the daily preparation of tiramisu involves Neapolitan coffee beans and an espresso maker from Naples, serviced by a Ferrari tech. “We go to great lengths for our diners,” said Raia Conti. “Just like we found our way to Little Silver, they now come to us. Little Buca is home.”