An Italian restaurant on the Upper West Side is an unlikely place to find a future pop superstar, but alongside eggplant meatballs and chicken scarpariello, Joanne Trattoria is offering a space for undiscovered artists to launch their careers.
With owner Joe Germanotta — he is Lady Gaga’s father — at the helm, the restaurant’s rebrand includes a Thursday evening Emerging Artist Showcase. If an artist impresses him, they can earn their own 90-minute set, branded as Discovered at Joanne.
When we visited on Saturday, Grace Romanello sang a mix of show tunes and Gaga favorites, cabaret-style, as part of Mayhem week, running in parallel to Gaga’s Mayhem Ball concerts at Madison Square Garden. Diners enjoying the music ranged from older couples, younger folks on dates and families with small children to Gaga superfans in their new Mayhem Ball tour T-shirts. The restaurant hosted its first Mayhem week last March when Gaga released her album of the same name.
Grace Romanello performs at Joanne during Mayhem Week
The Gaga connection is celebrated at Joanne, from a concert video playing on a TV at the bar to cocktails like Edge of Glory named for her songs. She grew up around the corner in an apartment where the Germanottas still live.
“The goal is to help artists get discovered to give back to the community,” said Gabby Gabriel, who is leading Joanne’s rebrand through her company Second Wind Media, in which Germanotta has taken an ownership stake.
Sam Wilson, Joanne’s artistic director and director of programming, said he came to the restaurant to propose a poetry night. “There’s not a lot of Upper West Side support for artists. That’s why I came here, and they totally embraced me.”
Singers who have been “discovered at Joanne” include Reyna Grace Moran and Abbey Hutchins, who was introduced to the room by her old voice teacher at Julliard. Romanello, who has performed in the touring production of “Mean Girls,” has become the room’s resident cabaret singer after she filled in one night for a friend who was sick.
As part of the venue’s outreach, it has partnered with the world-renowned Julliard School, whose campus is a six-minute walk away, to help supply talent for its emerging artist series. Other connections include The Bitter End in Greenwich Village, which hosted a show in February featuring five emerging artists from Joanne and will do so again on June 23. And on May 12, Joanne will present emerging artists at Arlene’s Grocery on the Lower East Side.
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