About

Julian began his exploration in food as a child through his Italian grandmothers. Over 20 years ago, Julian started working as a busboy and worked his way up to runner, bar back and eventually waiter and manager. In a short amount of time, he recognized both a love for the restaurant business and a love for food. Julian acquired an extensive knowledge of multiple cuisines and began introducing such flavors in his home kitchen.

Julian’s longtime collaboration with Chef, Frank Prisinzano started early in his career and flourished when Prisinzano decided to open up Frank Restaurant 1998, an Italian Trattoria in the East Village. From there, Julian, further mastered food, wine and Italian culture and operations. Three years after Frank’s opening, Julian went on to open Lil’ Frankie’s Pizza, with Prisinzano. Vasquez helped oversee both the construction build-out and development of the menu. Additionally, Julian was involved briefly with the opening of Supper Restaurant.
In June of 2002, Julian took the GM responsibilities over for all the businesses and opened the expansion of Lil Frankie’s. Vasquez was involved again with the renovation, build out and menu development. When construction came to an end, Julian was behind the line for the first few months cooking and training the new kitchen staff.
In 2005, Julian moved to California and pursued an Associates degree in Science at the Santa Barbara School of Culinary Arts and Hotel Management, all the while managing Bucatini, another casual Italian eatery. Vasquez continued to cater private events in Montecito and worked as a personal chef when available before leaving to head back to New York permanently.
Upon his return to NY in 2007, Julian joined forces with Frank again, taking over as Director of Operations and beginning Frank Caters. Vasquez developed strong customer relationships creating menus and unforgettable parties from an intimate dinner for ten to weddings and large scale events such as the East village Radio Festival.
In 2010, Julian decided to leave this all behind in pursuit of his own vision.

CONTACT
phone: 718.216.3371
email: makesitnice@gmail.com