By Brian Lockhart
Police have made an arrest in last Thursday's violent murder of a Flushing resident and prominent restaurateur in the kitchen of his romantic, Upper East Side Italian eatery.
Nicolo Orobello, 62, of 33-77 166th St. in Flushing was found dead around 11:30 a.m. Friday in the kitchen of Erminia at 250 East 83rd St., one of three Italian restaurants his family owns and operates in Manhattan, said Police Department spokesman Officer Chris Cottingham.
Early the following morning, police arrested 17-year-old Hugo Flores of Corona as a murder suspect. He apparently confessed to the murder, according to a criminal complaint from the Manhattan district attorney's office.
Cottingham said Flores, of 32-25 97th St., was an illegal alien from Mexico who worked at Erminia as a busboy and salad chef for four months.
“There was an apparent dispute, I believe, over his being fired,” said Cottingham.
Erminia has been open for about two decades, and relatives of Orobellos' wife have owned and operated Manhattan's Baci at 412 Amsterdam Ave. and Lattanzi Ristorante at 361 W. 46th St. as well as eateries in San Diego and Miami.
A spokeswoman for the Manhattan DA said Flores was arraigned on second-degree murder charges Friday and was again due in court on Wednesday.
According to the criminal complaint, Orobello was found in a pool of blood beside a meat cleaver with severe wounds to his head and neck.
The complaint also said following their alleged argument, Orobello picked up a knife and told Flores to leave, but the defendant continued to quarrel with the restaurateur, then picked up the cleaver and struck him in the wrist and four times in the neck.
Orobello's family could not be reached for comment and no one answered the phone at Erminia Tuesday evening.
Joseph Franco, owner of the elegant Caffe on the Green restaurant in Bayside, owned an Italian restaurant of his own – Ristorante Dieci – around the corner from Erminia for most of the 1980s.
Franco said Orobello was “a nice, nice guy.”
“He was a real gentleman,” Orobello said. “And he knew the business. A real people pleaser.”
Zagat's restaurant guide has described Erminia as one of the city's most romantic dining spots with delicious food and first-rate service.
