We opened Rossoblu about 8 months ago in downtown Los Angeles
It probably took me close to 15 years to actually own a restaurant
I was partners with my wife Dina
At the stage of my life, getting up into my 40s
So I said, “Let's just do it on our own.”
Jonathan Gold is kind of Los Angeles icon
He ranked us the 10th best restaurant in Los Angeles our first year that we're open
I'm Steve Samson
I grew up in Los Angeles
But my mom was from Bologna, Italy
I go there almost every summer since I was little
My grandfather used to grill meat
My nonna would make the pasta
Rossoblu, that's a love letter to the food I grew up eating
Rossoblu means red and blue
Bologna is the red
And Los Angeles is the blue
With the ocean, the blue skies
I guess it seems like an industrial space
Very high ceilings, a lot of concrete
We are probably 7000 or 8000 square feet
With some steps up, kind of a serpentine bar
We got a group of artists to paint a mural on the wall
Which has become kind of a focal point in the restaurant
Upstairs is the LA, more modern
And then down the stairs here is our private dining room
Like an Italian grandmother's room
There's one dish on the menu that's dedicated to my grandfather
Grilled Pork Chop and the Grilled Sausage, the more traditional stuff
We get our pigs in. We butcher them every Thursday
I cut off a nice belly on pork chop
And grilled out over our open fire
And served with our house-made sausage as well
All the pasta’s kind of an homage to my nonna
Doing it all by hand
Very thin, almost like a bed sheet
One of our fresh pastas Maltagliati
We cut them in nice squares
Serve it here with mushrooms and some dandelion greens
Use a little sage and the parmesan cheese
My dad is a doctor and my older brother is also a doctor
I thought maybe I wanted to be a physician.
I did that premedical program at Columbia
And I realized that's not really what I want to do
I started cooking school when I was about 28
Opening Rossoblu was really difficult
The whole family's definitely involved in
My wife Dina, we met at university
We've been together for 20 something years off and on
10 years ago we got married
We have twins. Luca and Gaia
They like to come here. Out in the courtyard they run around and go crazy
They like to help me cook
They both like to eat
“Pasta!”
My son Luca in particular can be pretty critical
He'd say “Too much salt daddy.”
Downtown LA was always a place people would come to work during the day
It would become kind of a ghost town at night and on weekends
Until about 10 years ago
You saw parts like the bank areas, the arts district, fashion district
With restaurants popping up
We're kind of in between there
We're trying to create a place that's friendly and inviting
One of our big fans, the Russo Brothers moving in upstairs
They do all the Avenger movies
Having celebrities and people from the entertainment industry
Is pretty normal here in Los Angeles
When other chefs come in, I get very anxious.