On the 25 Year Anniversary: Dr Arthur Zampella

Arthur Zampella, Robert Lax and Barry Ulanov Editors of the Columbia Review in 1938

Marks, Zampella, Dr Powell, Warsaw, Ferayorni: Members of the  Pre-med Society at Columbia University in 1938

My dad worked as a tour guide in Rockefeller Center while he was a pre-med student at Columbia University. He knew John D. Rockefeller, Jr. who would ask him about his studies. As a child he would stand me before the tablet in Rockefeller Center and read to me the credo he believed in from a man he knew.

“I believe that love is the greatest thing in the world; that it alone can overcome hate; that right can and will triumph over might.”

Life is a series of moments – and as time passes some moments are indelibly seared in our memory. Some moment we can plan for, but the ones that hit us on idle Wednesday are usually the most unexpected and significant.

The last time I saw him at the age of 25, I remember wishing he were young and vibrant like the photographs I had seen of him as a young man.

For all intent and purpose, I was raised by the grandfather I never had. Arthur Dante Louis Zampella was born to Filomna & Erminio Zampella in Jersey City, NJ in 1917. I was raised with an appreciation of a different era. The influences of fashion, music and history were from a different time. Something I would not fully appreciate until I grew older.

Time has a way of making you forget some things, but I can recall that moment 25 years ago as if it were yesterday. Standing beside his lifeless body and knowing that whatever life force that made the man I adored stir... was no longer with me or within him.

I dream sometimes that I see a figure in the distance on the grounds at Idylease. I think it is him as my mind is prone to play tricks on me. As I approach, it is not him… but rather a stranger. A painful reminder that he is no longer with me. He did not leave me willingly.

As I sit at Idylease on this eve of this anniversary. The words he spoke to me two days before he left
are still with me. "One day you will own Idylease and your vision for the property will become true."

Most people I speak with that have lost a parent often tell you that there is no such thing as closure, or “getting over it”. Closure would mean forgetting the past and moving forward, For me, the loss itself reinforces my compassion, especially when I see others lose a loved one. Even though you may fill that void, you will never touch, or talk again. It becomes a part of who you are – like where you grew up or remembering reading a good book or a seeing a play.

We should always tell those close to us how we feel about them, even if they have heard it from us before. Tell them why you love them, speak with them like it’s the first time – and the last time.

Moments matter.

- Richard Zampella
On the 25th Anniversary of the Death of
Arthur Dante Louis Zampella

Preserving the Past by Richard Zampella

 © 2014 Richard Zampella: Rockefeller Center

In 2009 art conservators worked around the clock in the lobby of 30 Rockefeller Plaza to remove years of urban soot and varnish that needed to be removed one inch at a time from the murals originally painted by the Spanish painter José María Sert.

In the design phase of Rockefeller Center, Edward Trumbull, a painter, designer and muralist, created the color schemes of all the artwork and the finishes for the lobbies of every building in the complex. But over the years the surfaces grew darker and as the murals’ topcoat of varnish deepened, the maintenance staff painted the undecorated parts of the walls a darker color to match. A visit to the lobby of 30 Rock today yields a brilliant restoration of the murals as they appeared  when unveiled to the public in 1929.

Read more at: Preserving the Past

Richard Zampella Recalls The Rainbow Room

Richard Zampella pictured in The Rainbow Room for Gourmet Magazine 

Richard Zampella Recalls The Rainbow Room

After the Rainbow Room had been reopened in 1986, a guest asked restauranteur Joeseph Baum how he had managed to improve the views so dramatically from the 65th Floor of the GE building. He told her that he had lifted all the Rivers and Bridges. Baum would later recall, "She seemed to be satisfied with that answer."

Joe was fascinated with all the great urban spaces in New York City where people gather together. He viewed them as market places of ideas serving a similar function to the Forum in ancient Rome. It was not surprising that one of his first projects; The Newarker, situated in the vast airport terminal at Liberty International, became his warm up exercise for a fast succession of spectacular restaurants with hospitality projects that soured above the bustling city plazas of the former World Trade Center and Rockefeller Center.

Baum's genius lay in the simple premise that it is the combination of ambiance, food and service that defines a great restaurant. He went far beyond the traditional ways of creating and running restaurants when he integrated the services and skills of fashion designers, acoustical and efficiency experts and consultants, including James Beard and Julia Child, but the part he enjoyed most was working with architects and graphic designers. Among his many colleagues were Philip Johnson. Warren Platner, Eero Saarinen, I. M. Pei, Mies van de Rohe, Alexander Girard, William Pahlmann, Philip George,
Hugh Hardy and Milton Glaser.

From the beginning, Joe knew architecture held the secret to realizing his vivid and revolutionary concepts. It was pivotal to his dreams- He was drawn to architects and designers whose intellect and cultural depths grabbed his ideas and were willing to wrestle with outmoded rules and blinkered thinking.

Richard Zampella will always remember the Rainbow Room fondly where he worked from 1989-2003
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Richard Zampella Restaurant Design Portfolio Now on Tumblr

Richard Zampella’s food service career spans nearly three decades, most of them spent at a fifteen year stint at The Rainbow Room in Rockefeller Center under restaurant impresario Joseph Baum. Zampella’s career began in 1987 when he began his career as Dining Room Manager at The Oyster Bar in Grand Central under Jerome Brody and Mario Staub.

Subsequently, Zampella managed Thee Oak Room and Bar at The Plaza Hotel where he caught the attention of Atif Youssef, then Vice President of Sheraton Hotels, who recruited Zampella to serve as a Food & Beverage Manager at The Essex House Hotel on Central Park South.

In 2001, Zampella parlayed his expertise to found Zampella & Company, a collaborative team of hospitality experts that consults and develops restaurant concepts in the U.S., Europe and Asia.

When not consulting or lecturing on hospitality subjects, Zampella serves as the Managing Partner of Transmultimedia, Inc., a creative services agency with offices in New York City and on Long Island which recently produced the feature length documentary, Cooper & Hemingway: The True Gen.  The film focuses on 20 year friendship between writer Ernest Hemingway and actor Gary Cooper. and received a Critic’s Pick from The New York Times in October of 2013. Zampella supports many non-for-profit organizations and serves as President of the Point Lookout Chamber of Commerce in Nassau County.

View Richard Zampella Restaurant Portfolio