Cavey’s Restaurant, an award-winning fine-dining destination celebrating its 85th anniversary in Manchester, is on the market. But owner Steve Cavagnaro doesn’t have plans to exit the family restaurant just yet.
It’s business as usual right now at the eatery on East Center Street known for its Northern Italian and French cuisine, he said Wednesday, while he continues to mull his future. Cavey’s was listed for sale in June, but Cavagnaro, whose grandparents opened the restaurant in 1933, says he’s considered his next steps for some time now.
“My wife has been trying to convince me to sell for years,” he says. “You’re on the fence weighing it back and forth, but I’ve been thinking about it for a long time. You don’t have the stamina. You need younger legs. You get tired, your eyesight isn’t as good.”
Cavagnaro grew up in the business, watching his grandmother make torta and ravioli, and began washing dishes at the restaurant at age 13. “Then I was always called in if someone didn’t show up,” he says.
At first, he says, he wasn’t attracted to the work. Sports and a teenage social life were bigger lures.
“As a younger person, it always seemed to be in my way, of what I thought was real life.”
He would rediscover the culinary world on his own, after studying English in college and teaching high school after graduation. A subscription to Gourmet magazine helped spark a love for the industry.
“I always liked food, but I couldn’t get enough,” he says. “I could be in the restaurant 30 hours if there were 30 hours in a day.”
That love for food, wine and hospitality is still there, Cavagnaro says, but he’s about to turn 76. He’s looking for a little more freedom in life, a chance to travel more and see his children and grandchildren, who live out of state.
Cavagnaro’s wife of 46 years, Kate, has shared the ownership experience with him through “all the ups and downs,” he says. “She’s a great anchor. You really have to be lucky in life that you meet that right person. … If you’re going to be here 15 hours a day, it’s nice to have your closest friend and person in your life [here] too.”
While he doesn’t have an official plan for post-restaurant life, he says, he can’t imagine not being involved with food and wine somehow.
“Food and wine can transport you, can take you from wherever you are in the moment and bring you to some heavenly place, sometimes. That’s what you hope to do. It may last only a moment, but that’s what you hope for.”
Regular service continues at Cavey’s, with a schedule of planned special events like its popular Tuesday night wine series, with tastings of five wines paired with five small plates. A monthly “library dinner,” with fine wines from the restaurant’s cellar, returns Sept. 7. There’s a special menu with wine pairings in the works for Julia Child’s birthday, available Aug. 15 through 18, and the restaurant marked its own milestone birthday with a special $19.33 prix-fixe menu, running through Aug. 12.
Cavagnaro says the restaurant has been having a “very good” summer, at a time of year when business can normally be slow.
The restaurant has received honors and recognition for its Italian and French fare over the years, including top ratings from Zagat and multiple favorable New York Times reviews. Cavagnaro himself earned a nod from the James Beard Foundation in 2010, as a semifinalist in the Best Chef: Northeast award category that year.
Cavey’s has been listed for sale at $849,000, according to the website for Commercial Services Realty in Rocky Hill, including assets and the approximately 8,100-square-foot building.
Cavagnaro hopes a new owner will keep some of the restaurant’s customs going, and that he’d be happy to stay on and assist. “That’s what I would ideally like. That’s not going to be the factor of whether I sell it to someone or not, but that would be the ideal thing, if someone would be willing to sort of carry on the traditions.”
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