By Sophia Chang
The upscale Bayside restaurant and catering hall's selection of 550 wines by the bottle and 50 wines by the glass has brought it accolades from no less than Wine Spectator magazine, the wine aficionado's bible. The magazine will announce in its Aug. 31 issue that Caffe on the Green has received the Best of Award of Excellence 2004, a recognition of the restaurant's “vintage depth, vertical offerings of several top wines (and) excellent breadth from major wine-growing regions.””It's a very hard award to get,” said owner Joe Franco. “The wines they expect to see on the wine list are very hard to find, cult wines.” He pointed out a few of the vertical offerings in the list, which are bottles from the same vineyard over a span of several years, sometimes decades. “It's somewhat hard to comprise this list every year from distributors to get this,” he said. “This proves that the restaurateur put a lot of effort and money into the wine list.” Located in silent film star Rudolph Valentino's summer home on the Cross Island Parkway, the restaurant has received previous honors from Wine Spectator. Franco said Caffe on the Green has been on the magazine's Award of Excellence list since the second year of the restaurant's history.This year the restaurant was upgraded to Best of Award of Excellence, the only Queens restaurant on the list. Franco said he wants to aim for the magazine's highest honor, the Grand Award, although he said ruefully “it may take years and years and years to get to that place.”In addition, the restaurant was recently honored with the 2005 Award of Excellence from the Distinguished Restaurants of North America. Known as DiRoNA, the organization's Web site says it “recognizes gourmet restaurants that exemplify culinary excellence in all aspects of fine dining from the making of a reservation to the final presentation of the check” through anonymous visits to the restaurants.Franco said that he sent in a request to DiRoNA to be considered for an award three years ago, and in June “we suddenly found out that we were picked.” The organization bases its awards on a comprehensive 75-point checklist, said Victoria Livadas, DiRoNA programs and membership director, and if Caffe on the Green passes the anonymous reinspections every three years, the award is for life.”It's somewhat prestigious,” Franco said. “It sets a standard in how restaurants are run and what people are looking for.””It's not just sitting down and having a good meal or even good service,” he added. “It's the whole thing.”Reach reporter Sophia Chang by e-mail at news@timesledger.com, or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 146.
