On Christmas Eve, while families were quietly celebrating the holiday, burglars broke into the storage room of newly opened Borsalia Café in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It wasn’t easy breaking through the space—they had to break the lock of the hatch on the sidewalk and drill a hole in the wall that prevented access to the kitchens.
When detectives and police arrived to the crime scene, they were surprised to notice that the only missing item was the fresh pasta prepared by Borsalia's chefs Ottavia Gnazzo and Esmeria de la Rosa. Nothing else was stolen. Valuable bottles of wine, prosecco and champagne and the money in the register were all left behind.
The burglars are still at large and we might never know the motive of the robbery, but Borsalia’s manager Cristiano Rossi has an idea: “ My answer to this is that our pasta is in high demand and is of the highest value.”
Chefs Gnazzo and de la Rosa had to roll up their sleeves and work all Christmas Day to re-prepare the stolen pasta for their reopening on December 26. Luckily they are fully stocked for any further order of their fresh pastas, from gnocchi to cappelletti to buckwheat orecchiette, that are so good, they fly off the shelves.
Unphased by the gourmet robbers, Borsalia continues to serve breakfast, lunch and dinner daily.