Tarantino, who gave his name to the spacious subterranean restaurant, is the owner and McDermott, the general manager. Between them, they boast close to 50 years experience running and working in restaurants. Both hail from the United States and share a love of Ukraine. Despite the similarities, though, they're a surprising pair because they are in many ways polar opposites.
Tarantino, in his late 50s, is an Italian-American with a gruff, rasping voice straight out of Central Casting. He's a diminutive, silver-haired bundle of wisecracking energy firing out one-liners in staccato bursts.
Meanwhile, McDermott, 36, is everybody's idea of the quintessential laid-back American. He's a soft-spoken man with a calm, studied veneer.
Is it a case of opposites attracting?
"We're a good team," says McDermott.
"I have a lot of local knowledge - I've been operating restaurants in Ukraine for over six years - and he (Tarantino) comes from a long tradition of running restaurants in the States. I know how to work with the people to get things accomplished and he's very good in the kitchen. He's very personable."
Tarantino has no doubts about their business partnership.
"God wanted us to get hooked up. Mike's a great guy. We're working as hard as we possibly can but we're having a lot of laughs along the way."
Tarantino has been in the restaurant business since 1971. Originally from Gravina di Puglie, a small town in the "heel of the boot of Italy," he and his folks emigrated to the USA when he was 16. They settled in Stamford, Connecticut where he learned English "on the streets." After a stint as a sheet-metal mechanic, he landed his first restaurant job in New Jersey, found he loved the trade and resolved to have his own place. He now has five restaurants across Connecticut.
What brought him to Ukraine?
"Luck. I rented an apartment to a young lady who was setting up a factory in Kyiv with her boss, who was from Odessa. They got me interested in this country. It's because of them that I'm here. I went to Kyiv and I liked it."
Was it love at first sight when he first hit Odessa?
"I came here four years ago and didn't care for it at all. It was winter and, of course, freezing. There were potholes everywhere and I was put off. Then, by chance, I happened to be in Odessa again. But this time, what a difference! It was summer, the weather was gorgeous and the people were so friendly. So I came back last year intending to stay two months at most. A year later, I'm still here and I hope to stay for another 100!"
It was while tasting what the city had to offer that the idea for Tarantino's began to take shape.
"I looked and I saw these restaurants that, as far as I'm concerned, have no understanding of Italian food whatsoever. Real Italian food is something that I've always been passionate about and it's a culture that I wanted to teach here in Odessa."
He got to know his future general manager through Estrellita's, a Mexican restaurant in Odessa that McDermott owned, but sold to join forces with Tarantino.
McDermott's background is in catering.
A Viginia native, he's worked in the restaurant business since his university days.
"I picked up part-time work in a pizzeria while I was at Virginia Tech and really enjoyed it. That led to other jobs but my first serious position was at Little Joe's, an Italian restaurant on Broadway in New York."
On a whim, he decided to go to Moscow a decade ago.
"It was simple curiosity," he said.
The Eastern European bug bit and he stayed working as a sous chef and then a full-fledged chef, and things progressed from there.
"I went on to launch the first Starlight Diner in the city, worked in another couple of places and then I received an invitation from the Arizona restaurant group to open up a branch in Donetsk, which is how I found myself in Ukraine."
A period in Kyiv followed before he zeroed-in on Odessa as the venue for Estrellita's.
Odessa is a city chock-a-block with dining options. Is there room for one more?
"Of course," he said. "We don't have any fancy gimmicks, just good food. If you look at the decorations you'll see they resemble that of an apartment or a house, not that of a restaurant. We don't have any pictures of Naples or the Coliseum on the wall. We decorated it like you would your own place. We tried to create an Italian home here, and the food reflects that."
A quick perusal of the menu seams to bear this out. There are the expected classic dishes like Spaghetti Carbonara (Hr 27), but there are surprises as well, like scallops wrapped in bacon with Grand Marnier sauce (Capesante Al Grand Marnier), at Hr 45 and McDermott's personal favorite - rabbit cacciatora, with tomato, mushrooms and bell peppers (Coniglio Alla Cacciatora), at Hr 49.
From where did they draw their culinary inspiration?
"I wanted this restaurant to be a home away from home," says Tarantino. "A lot of these recipes have been handed down from my mother, father and grandfather."
McDermott agrees: "We didn't look at any menus. We simply chose what we like to eat."
Apart from educating Odessa's palate, they intend to deal head-on with one of the most common complaints visitors to Ukraine have - the service.
"There isn't a service culture here," says McDermott. "When you walk into a store, people don't make eye contact. When people don't say hello and when people are rude to you at the train station, that's bad service. All businesses survive on one thing - service. For restaurants, it's crucial. So our number-one priority was to select staff with nice personalities, people who are not 'conflict-orientated.' We treat them with respect and show them hands-on how to wait on tables, how to interact with customers and we encourage them to do the same. That's all."
The two Mikes' profession has notoriously punishing hours.
"It's no problem," says McDermott. "I've always been a nocturnal person. I don't like mornings. I like waking up in the afternoon and working late into the night and I love the work. Let's face it, there are easier ways to make money, but I like building teams that work efficiently and have a good time together." Tarantino nods his head in agreement.
Is there a lighter side to the business?
"I love the excuses that cooks come up with," said McDermott. "Like the other day, one cook told me that the salt was too salty!"
Tarantino said that he opened a restaurant in Stamford, Connecticut and after a couple of months, " we went from zero business to a full house every night. One day the place was packed as usual and I'm working flat-out in the kitchen when I get a call that some customers would like to see me. I ask the waiter what the problem is and he says that they've been waiting a long time."
"So I go to the table and it's a married couple. I say 'How can I help you?" and the woman says to me, 'Honey, if you turned down the music a little bit you'd probably get a lot more people in here.' With that, her husband screamed at her, 'What are you talking about? Isn't an hour and a half wait long enough for you?'"
What does the future hold for two such unlikely partners?
McDermott, who met his wife Natasha when he was working in Moscow,
is happy just relishing the role of fatherhood.
"I have a one-and-half year-old daughter, Liza. I'm not thinking as an individual any more, but as a family."
As for Tarantino, he has one wish. "I want this to be the most famous restaurant in Odessa."
Tarantino is no relation to controversial film director Quentin Tarantino, whose films include 'Reservoir Dogs' and 'Pulp Fiction.' Or is he?
"People ask me, and I tell them he's my nephew!"
Gerald Harty is a freelance writer and Odessa resident.
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