Stella’s Italian Restaurant owner dies at 79 | Business

Stella’s Italian Restaurant reached the end of an era last week, without the familiar sight of owner Marco Barbitta — cigar and wineglass in hand — seated beside the bar.

Barbitta, owner of Stella’s Italian Restaurant, died Tuesday (March 10) at age 79. The renowned chef and restaurateur’s absence has left a void in the Taos community, said Laura Oest, Barbitta’s longtime business partner and co-owner of Stella’s.

In his place at the bar is a memorial with flowers and pictures left by family and friends.

“Marco and I were partners for such a long time — 30 years, my entire adult life — because I started working at the Trading Post that he owned when I was 17,” Oest said. “I keep wanting to go, ‘What do you think, Marco, should we do this? Should we do that?’”

“I can hear his voice trying to guide me through it,” she said.

Barbitta’s career ranged from cooking aboard cruise ships to opening restaurants across the globe. In the early 2000s, he opened Downtown Bistro. In 2011, he opened Stella’s Italian Restaurant in Taos. Decades ago, he opened the Trading Post Cafe in Ranchos de Taos alongside Rene Mettler and Kimberly Armstrong.

Oest said the reaction to his death reflects how deeply he was woven into people’s lives.

“The whole bar has flowers and there’s flowers outside the door,” she said. “So many people are showing up here in tears, so upset, and can’t get over it. He had friends all over the world because he’s been to every country. That’s what he did. He’d go open up a restaurant and a hotel, then he’d move on to the next country and do it again.”

Barbitta was born in Switzerland in 1956. His Italian mother and Swiss father operated a restaurant during his youth. He trained at a hotel and restaurant school in Switzerland before becoming a sommelier and executive chef.

In the early 1970s, he moved to the United States, embarking on a career that made him friends among restaurant owners and chefs around the world. Barbitta worked as an executive chef and helped open new restaurants for Hyatt Regency Hotels & Resorts.

“They’d send him to wherever it was that they were going to open a new hotel,” Oest said. “He’d go in there and get everything set up and make a menu. Then, as soon as it was open, running and ready to go, they’d send him somewhere else to go do it again.”

Barbitta moved to Taos from Miami, Florida, with chef Rene Mettler in the mid-1990s. He opened the Trading Post in 2000.

Oest met Barbitta when she was 17 and visiting from California.

“The hostess at the time was leaving to go be a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, so they were looking for a hostess,” Oest said. “My aunt was like, ‘Oh, my niece is looking for a job,’ and Marco, who was behind the counter cooking, said, ‘She’s hired.’”

Over time, Barbitta and Oest began dating. She spent several years traveling with him to help his friends open restaurants in Europe, as well as Miami and Orlando, Florida; Phoenix, Arizona; and Colorado.

They eventually opened their own restaurants. Their first venture was Downtown Bistro in Taos. The restaurant offered what Oest described as “international cuisine,” with menu items ranging from steak to pasta to sashimi.

Oest also accompanied Barbitta to Switzerland to open a Mexican restaurant, Bodega Cancun. The restaurant was one of Barbitta’s more improbable ventures but is still operated by Barbitta’s family members today.

“We took decorations from here in New Mexico, like chile ristras and things like that,” she said.

Downtown Bistro was open for 10 years before the building’s new owners leased the space to Big 5 Sporting Goods. Oest and Barbitta had already opened Stella’s Italian Restaurant, named after Oest’s daughter and grandmother.

Stella, now 17, grew up in the restaurant. Oest said her family moved half of the flagstone bar from Downtown Bistro into Stella’s, along with tables, chairs and wine racks. Downtown Bistro favorites like squash ravioli and Cajun pasta were carried over as well.

Barbitta had many friendships in Taos. For 25 years, he stopped by Michael’s Kitchen nearly every morning to have coffee with owners Derek Apodaca and Gina Apodaca.

“I don’t have my coffee buddy anymore,” Derek Apodaca said.

Barbitta was deeply dedicated to his restaurant and his craft. The Apodacas said he began apprenticing in the culinary arts when he was about 10 years old.

“He had a die-hard work ethic,” Gina Apodaca said. “His true passion was cooking, wine and people.”

Outside of work, Barbitta loved skiing, his Ducati motorcycle, hiking with his Rottweiler and bicycling, especially in Switzerland.

“He cared about the community,” said Nora Oest, Laura’s mother. “He was always wanting more lights in the street so that people wouldn’t be walking around in the dark … He had really close ties to Taos Ski Valley, when all of his buddies up there when he first came were European … He loved snow.”

“A beautiful heart of gold”

To some, Barbitta seemed gruff, or as Laura Oest joked, like a “grumpy old man sitting by the bar and glaring at everybody.” To others, this gruffness masked deep tenderness and generosity.

“He was a cantankerous, opinionated, stubborn son of a bitch with a beautiful heart of gold,” Gina Apodaca said.

“When he walked in the restaurant, he’d make the rounds and say hello to everybody,” Derek Apodaca added. “He didn’t act like he was better than anybody else. It didn’t matter if [you’ve worked for] two days at the restaurant or been at the restaurant for 15 years.”

Barbitta was fiercely protective of Stella’s employees and was never afraid to stand up to rude customers, Derek Apodaca said.

Barbitta was also like an uncle to the Apodacas’ son and Laura Oest’s children.

“He used to have tea parties with Stella,” Oest said. “She made him have tea parties, play games and play with the dolls. He really wasn’t like that. He didn’t like things like that, but he did it.”

He was also a good sport when she dragged him to Disney World.

“We went to Disney World together and took him on all the rides, but he was a really good sport about it,” Laura Oest said. “We played the games and got a picture of him with Eeyore. I took him on ‘It’s a Small World’ and he complained the whole time through, but he still did it!”

Her son, Colten, shared Barbitta’s sense of humor.

“They’d just constantly joke with each other,” she said. “Marco would call him names in Swiss German, and Colten would call him ‘Uncle Poop Head.’”

When Nora Oest’s husband was diagnosed with dementia, Barbitta agreed to watch over her younger daughter, Lorraine, who moved in with Laura Oest and Barbitta when she was 14.

Barbitta’s compassion reached beyond his family and friends. He often checked in on business owners around Taos Plaza.

“He’d walk the plaza to make sure and see how the shops were doing,” Gina Apodaca said. “He’d talk to the business owners and he made time for everybody.”

In his last weeks, Barbitta was recovering from an injury sustained in a fall. Even as his health worsened, he remained focused on the restaurant.

“He’d say, ‘I have to get back to the restaurant, I have to get to work,’” Laura Oest said. “This was his home. The restaurant was his home and he couldn’t stand to be away from it.”

Stella’s marked its 15th anniversary in January and will continue operating Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Because the restaurant’s liquor license was in Barbitta’s name, Oest must reapply for a new one, which she expects will take six to eight months.

“He touched so many lives, he really did,” Nora Oest said. “It’s amazing how many people love Marco.”