Exclusive: Restaurateur Piero Selvaggio Joins Drago Centro’s Team | Los Angeles, CA

Chef Celestino Drago, Managing partner Piero Selvaggio, GAYOT’s Wine & Spirits Editor Dirk Smits, Sophie Gayot

Sophie Gayot, Chef Celestino Drago, Managing partner Piero Selvaggio, GAYOT’s Wine & Spirits Editor Dirk Smits

By Sophie Gayot

When Food Meets Wine

Los Angeles, August 24, 2020

After a massive team effort, chef Celestino Drago reopened Drago Centro in downtown Los Angeles. (The restaurant had been looted in July and was very damaged.) Added to the team is Piero Selvaggio, the owner of the legendary, now-defunct Valentino restaurant in Santa Monica, CA. This is the result of a 40-year friendship that started in Los Angeles, when they were fresh to the City of Angels, enhanced by their roots as they both hail from Sicily.

Wine connoisseurs know that Selvaggio had one of the best, if not the best, wine cellars in America. So when I headed there for dinner, it was a given that I had to go with GAYOT’s Wine & Spirits Editor Dirk Smits. Watch Selvaggio, now managing partner at Drago Centro, and Smits discussing the four wines that were poured that evening in the videos below.

To celebrate the reopening of the restaurant, Drago has composed a new summer menu, served, of course because of the current times. on the terrace. Even though the inside is molto stylish, the soothing patio has always been my favorite place to sit under the olive trees, surrounded by the glittering DTLA skyscrapers. Count on the culinary talent of Drago to take you on a delicate, memorable and delicious voyage to Italy (which you should enjoy even more as right now it is mission impossible to get there).

The menu is also available for takeout, delivery, and curbside pickup every Monday through Saturday from 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.

> Piero Selvaggio, Managing Partner Drago Centro, and Dirk Smits, GAYOT’s Wine & Spirits Editor, talking about a bottle of Timorasso, Timox, Piemonte 2015.

> Piero Selvaggio, Managing Partner Drago Centro, and Dirk Smits, GAYOT’s Wine & Spirits Editor, talking about a bottle of Rosso Di Montalcino, Valdicava, Toscana 2018.

> Piero Selvaggio, Managing Partner Drago Centro, and Dirk Smits, GAYOT’s Wine & Spirits Editor, talking about a bottle of Calabretta, Nerello Mascalese, 2010, Sicilia.