Meet the Owner: Joe Brancaccio of Brancaccio's Food Shop

Joe Brancaccio has been selling wildly popular prepared foods out of his 600-square-foot Fort Hamilton Parkway storefront since January of 2010. But had the stars not aligned just so, Brancaccio might still be working as a chef in someone else’s kitchen.

“Finding  a space is a full time job,” Brancaccio told Patch from his post behind the counter of his eatery, where you can find him every day but Tuesday,  greeting customers and churning out everything from pork shoulder sandwiches to some of the best mac ‘n cheese this side of the Mason-Dixon line.

“I was dragging my contractor around from place to place, but there was always something that just wasn’t right,” he said. “I was thinking maybe I should just take another chef job.”

In April 2009 while driving home from visiting family, Brancaccio found his space, a former sushi restaurant on a then-quiet strip of Fort Hamilton Parkway storefronts. Though foot traffic was virtually nonexistent, word of mouth provided Brancaccio all the business he could handle—and then some.

“It’s more than I ever expected, “ he said. “I didn’t expect to sell a cup of coffee out of this location.”

 Getting Started

A native of Dyker Heights, Brancaccio always wanted to open his own restaurant. He studied business administration at St. John’s University, and attended culinary school at the Institute of Culinary Education, then called Peter Kump. 

But Brancaccio knew there was only one type of business he would ever care to own: a restaurant.

Prior to enrolling at ICE, Brancaccio spent his days working in the kitchen at Urbino, dabbling with culinary classes only in the evenings. But one thing led to another, and Brancaccio knew he was in it for the long haul.

“Once you get hooked in the restaurant business, it’s not easy to get out,” he said. “It’s very seductive.”

After an externship at Montrachet, Brancaccio took a job as a roundsman at Lundy Brother’s Restaurant in Sheepshead Bay, an 800-seat behemoth of a space that saw two full turnovers each night.

Tackling the stations—a roundsman rotates between all of them—at Lundy Brothers gave Brancaccio the sensation that he could take on anything.

"After doing the volume that I did, anything that came after that was kind of, I don’t want to say easy for me, but I was more confident,” he said. “I guess I was pretty cocky at that point."

Following his time at Lundy’s, Brancaccio did a nine-year stint in the kitchen at Agata & Valentina, and then as the chef at a start-up called Kidfresh.

Finally, after three years at Kidfresh, Brancaccio knew it was time to move on.

"I had the whole design of this place in my head," he said of his future restaurant. "I knew exactly how the layout was going to go. The issue was finding an area conducive to the concept."

After months of searching, Brancaccio took a fortuitous drive past his current Fort Hamilton Parkway location. And the rest is history.

Looking Forward

Brancaccio has plans to open a second location, and has every intention of doing it in the neighborhood. He said when he does finally settle on a space, his new shop will complement the current one, focusing again on prepared foods made from fresh ingredients. Sorry, weary diners—his new place probably won’t have seating, either.

But patrons can take solace that any new venture launched by Brancaccio will be close to home.

“It needs to be in the neighborhood,” he said. “It’s been really good to me, it’s been really good to the shop. It’s a great demographic of people.”