Villa Paul Turns 50: 'We've Been Doing Something Right'

In 1947, a 17-year-old boy from Vernazza, Italy, unable to speak a lick of English, boarded a liberty ship with high hopes for his new life in the United States.

Domenico Pensa met his father, a bona fide ship worker who, months before, immigrated to New York, and the young man soon found himself in the restaurant industry. Starting as a busboy in several Manhattan restaurants, he developed a familiarity with the ins and outs of restaurants, climbing his way up the ladder to a full-time position, one he held for years, as the beloved maître d’ of La Vie En Rose in Great Neck.

Meanwhile, one of Mr. Pensa’s relatives from Vernazza had opened a restaurant in a historic home in Hampton Bays, which he named after himself—Paul Villa—though he inverted the two names. In 1965, Mr. Pensa visited his cousin and took Mr. Villa up on his offer to purchase the restaurant. That year, he moved his family to the hamlet and into the living quarters above the restaurant.

“The restaurant was our home,” said Charlie Pensa, the son of Dominico Pensa. “We lived upstairs and worked downstairs. My father was the chef, and he did most of the cooking until I got involved.”

Charlie Pensa literally grew up in the restaurant business, and as one of five children, he learned to cook in an industrial restaurant kitchen for holidays and family occasions. Most of the menu at Villa Paul looks as it did when Mr. Villa owned the Hampton Bays eatery, all classic Italian-American dishes.

“We’ve kept much of the menu the same,” Charlie Pensa said. “Obviously, being in the Hamptons, you have a lot of fresh fish, duck, veal, so we have all of them on our menu. Our duck is incredible, and we’ve always just gone with what sells. A lot of the recipes are mine from the 25 years I cooked there, but I trained the current chef, who’s been there for about 20 years.”

Domenico Pensa ran Villa Paul until about 1975, when Charlie and Jack Pensa took over. In 2002, Charlie and Cheryl Pensa handed the family business down to the third generation of Pensas: their daughter, Cristen, who has run the restaurant for 13 years. “Cristen lives in Hampton Bays, and she has really taken over the restaurant,” Cheryl Pensa said.

“We’re on Shelter Island now, and we are just overseers for the most part,” Charlie Pensa added. “She’s really been great. She knows what she’s doing, and I think it’s wonderful that we can keep it in the family.”

Despite the Pensa ownership, they are not the only name behind the success of Villa Paul. The Guzman family has been instrumental in the kitchen, and James Patterson has been behind the bar for 35 years, according to Charlie Pensa, who said he has no plans to change up operations at Villa Paul.

“We’ve been doing something right for 50 years,” he laughed. “So, we are going to keep doing what we do best. I think we are probably one of the best-kept secrets in the Hamptons.”