The Main Course
Pistachio Grille—Quality Food, Cute Name
Johnson & Wales-trained Moscardelli offers up breakfast, lunch and dinner at the Pistachio.
Five years ago, Ray Moscardelli took over a dingy, moribund restaurant and personally made it over—new name, new menu, new furnishings—and saw it doing brisk business in a few months. Moscardelli, called Ray Ray by family and friends, created Pistachio Grille from what had been Hayeck’s Café in Maple Glen. The name stems from the fact that the pistachio is his beloved young son’s favorite, and the first four-syllable word he learned to pronounce, even before he could say his four-syllable last name. Moscardelli paid his dues and learned his craft well. He trained at the prestigious Johnson & Wales University, and cheffed (newly invented verb) in such top restaurants as Il Gallo Nero, which later became the excellent (5 m’s) San Marco in …
