Larry Luster, Cynthia Packard
The new owners of Ciro & Sal's
When Ciro & Sal's, one of Provincetown's landmark restaurants for nearly 50 years, re-opens in April, it will be under new management.
The federal bankruptcy court in Boston accepted a bid of $725,000 from Larry Luster and his wife Cynthia Packard on March 10 for the popular and long-troubled Italian restaurant that had been founded by Ciro Cozzi and Sal Del Deo.
This brings to a close the final chapter in the venerable restaurant's long and difficult financial travails. Packard said she and other employees, including her husband who had been a waiter, had been talking for years about owning and operating the restaurant.
"All of us have tried to come up with ideas about how to save it," she said. "It's always been like a family."For Packard and Luster, the gamble to take over the restaurant was fraught with worry. First because both of them had worked for the Cozzi family for many years and were sad at the thought of the restaurant perhaps not remaining in the control of local people who would love and care for it.
The Lusters also had to spend a great deal of their own money to get the restaurant ready for inspection by the Town of Provincetown to get the licenses transferred, all with no guarantee they would eventually be the successful bidders.
As the parents of four young children, aged four to 12, and with Packard's successful career as an artist, they already have a very busy life.
Packard said they made their initial bid of $810,000 in November, 1999. The court had decreed no bids would be accepted if it were contingent upon a mortgage. Cash on the barrel head was the court's condition for sale, but all of the bids proffered at that time were contingent on outside financing.
"We started thinking maybe this wasn't a good idea," Packard said. "So we waited and watched and about a month ago, the court decided the property was non-saleable so we put in a lower bid."
The trustee in bankruptcy, Lynne F. Riley, filed a motion with the court to sell, rather than auction the real estate, personal and intangible assets free and clear of liens.
Riley wrote the court in February, "The Trustee has explored the market for the property by listing the property for sale with Pat Shultz Real Estate since May 1999. This offer is less than other offers received by the trustee, but those offers were contingent upon institutional financing, so all applications for financing the sale were denied.
"The Trustee believes that the property has been exposed to the market for a significant period of time, and that a private sale, rather than auction is in the estate's best interest."
With the court clearing the way for a private sale, Packard and Luster made their bid with financial assistance from Packard's mother, the artist, Ann Packard.
"Once we bid $725,000 and it was accepted, the court had to advertise for 20 days in order to notify creditors or anyone else who might be interested.\," said Packard.
Both she and Luster said this was the most nerve-racking time of all. The deadline was March 6, but they could still be outbid. All their work to clean the restaurant and get the licenses transferred into their names would be for naught. They would also be out any and all money they had spent on having the septic system checked as well as their own legal expenses.
Packard said at 4:25 pm on March 6, Ciro Cozzi made a bid contingent upon obtaining financing which caused a delay until Friday. Cozzi, she said, then made an appearance at the bankruptcy court, asking the court to reconsider and allow him to take the restaurant back. When the judge denied Cozzi's request, the Lusters knew they were the successful bidders. They plan on re-opening in the middle of April, but no later than May 1.
Nervous and excited is how Luster characterizes his feelings. Now 45, he has worked at the restaurant for more than two-thirds of his life, beginning when he was a 13 year old dishwasher. He came from Chattanooga to join a cousin who was working in Provincetown.
After that initial season, he returned each summer until he finally moved here full time as an adult. He and his brothers James and Charles, who later joined him, also moved to Provincetown and have done just about every job at Ciro's.
They got their love of restaurants from their mother. With nine children in the family, Luster said, his mother insisted that all her children, including the boys, learn to cook and help out around the house.
"Every man should know how to cook and sew clothes," Luster remembers his mother saying, "so they don't have to depend on a woman."
His parents had a tough job raising nine kids, he said. His father was a minister who also worked in road construction. Everyone in the family had to help out.
"Boy, do they know how to work," said Packard referring to her in-laws.
And the couple plans on having many of these same family members , as well as former members of the Ciro & Sal's staff, join in at the restaurant so it will truly be a family affair.
Luster said his brother James will be the chef and be aided by Charles and himself. Luster's son Larry Woods, now 21 and a student at Northeastern will wait on table. He may be joined by his sister Joyelle.
Packard's nephew Stephen Rome will work there as will Charles's wife Audrey and daughter Jennifer Edwards. Another Luster brother Michael, who is married to Denise Silva, a Provincetown girl, may also join them.
"They've wanted to move back here, but there has been no work," said Packard.
Packard and Luster's oldest son Zachary will help bus tables and the younger boys Caleb and Silas will take care of the bottles. The couple are also hoping Luster's sisters in Tennessee can come up to assist.
Packard said her mother-in-law screamed with joy when she heard her three sons would all be working together running a restaurant.
Packard, whose great-grandfather was the artist Max Bohm, grew up in Princeton, N.J., but summered in Provincetown with her grandmother. Her mother is an artist and her father is a writer.
Now 42, she's been living permanently in Provincetown for 20 years. She met Luster at Ciro & Sal's.
"I asked him for a job," she said, and got one working prep and making salads. She also bussed, waited tables and with her husband at her side and baby on her back, would return at 7 a.m. to clean the kitchen.
They plan to run the restaurant, keeping much of the same food Ciro & Sal's is known for with some exceptions.
"The food is good there," said Luster, "and we plan on making it one of the best restaurants in town, foodwise."
They are also planning to be open all year and make the bar friendly to drinkers and non-drinkers alike. With an added focus on non-alcoholic beers and wines as well as regular bar fare, the Lusters hope the restaurant will become a real meeting place.
With former employees and family members at their side with more than 125 years of experience combined, the Lusters said they hope to continue the vision the Cozzi family brought to the restaurant and help make that legacy grow.