Tony May, 84, Restaurateur Who Championed Italian Cuisine, Dies

He got here up with Palio, named for the Sienese equestrian contest, with a ground-floor bar, a mural by Sandro Chia and eating rooms designed by Massimo Vignelli. Mr. Could bought it up and operating however was concerned in its administration for lower than a 12 months. (It closed in 2002.)

Mr. Could moved on in 1988 to open his elegant flagship restaurant, San Domenico, on Central Park South, a sibling to the Michelin-starred restaurant of the identical identify in Imola, Italy. He even introduced its chef, Valentino Mercatilii, to New York to supervise the menu. His chef de delicacies was Paul Bartolotta, a younger American from Milwaukee whom Mr. Could had taken below his wing and had despatched to work in Italy.

Six weeks after it opened, the restaurant obtained three stars from Bryan Miller in The New York Occasions. (Mr. Could lived in an house within the constructing that housed it.)

A few of San Domenico’s signature dishes, like heat shrimp with white beans and a raviolo stuffed with egg, proceed to look on Italian menus. Mr. Bartolotta was the manager chef till 1991, within the midst of constructing an illustrious profession. “With out Tony I’d have been a pizza prepare dinner in Milwaukee,” he stated in a cellphone interview. “I’ve an never-ending degree of gratitude for him.”

San Domenico’s clientele included celebrities like Luciano Pavarotti. Among the many restaurant’s different cooks had been Andrew Carmellini, Scott Conant and, from Brescia, Italy, Odette Fada, who held the manager chef place beginning in 1996, the uncommon feminine chef in a top-flight New York kitchen. She was the chef till San Domenico closed in 2008, unable to resume its lease. “Tony Could all the time pushed me ahead,” she stated by cellphone.

Then, along with his daughter and Ms. Fada, Mr. Could reconfigured the restaurant additional downtown as SD26, on East twenty sixth Avenue on Madison Sq. Park. (It was bought in 2015 and changed by one other restaurant.) He additionally owned Gemelli and PastaBreak, each of which had been destroyed within the World Commerce Heart assaults. At his dying, Mr. Could and Ms. Metalli had been engaged on a brand new restaurant undertaking in Midtown, which stays on observe to open subsequent 12 months.