Our Back Story

The spark that started Charlie's Table was a conversation during a journey on a bicycle ride across Manhattan. The riders were both coming from a hospital where they’d spent time caring for their mutual friend Charlie. Charlie was known for his compassionate, exemplar lifestyle, charitable work and sharing fresh, nutritious food and companionship with family and friends at his kitchen table.

One rider was Daniele Kucera, an Italian immigrant who started in the U.S. as a busboy, and arose to owning a well-respected New York theatre district restaurant. When diagnosed gluten intolerant, he was devastated at the thought of not being able to eat pasta and not being able to serve homemade pasta to restaurant guests with a similar situation. He spent a year creating a gluten free pasta that tasted and felt like the fresh simple pasta his grandmother literally used to make over her wood stove “in the old country”. He wondered how he could get his pasta to other gluten sensitive people who didn’t have his resources to create their own delicious gluten free pasta.

The other rider was David Landay, another socially conscious New Yorker who was a founder of several non-profit organizations and was ready for the next chapter in his life.

The result: Charlie's Table - a place where everyone is welcome.