MY LIFE IN FOOD: John Oates on the Greenwich Village restaurant that inspired his 80s hit 'Maneater'
- Half of former rock-soul duo Hall & Oates, the 76-year-old guitarist tells Tom Parker Bowles about dining no-nos, mob-guy restaurants in NY and his nonna’s meatballs
I was born in New York City, and when I was very young I used to stay at my Italian grandmother’s house. Being the first grandson in an Italian family I had an exalted position. When she cooked, no one was allowed in the kitchen except me, and she would always give me the first meatball.
That was something that stuck with me for ever. She would also make lasagne, laying out the pasta flat on a bed sheet. I always remember the smell of that flour in her bedroom.
My mum wasn’t that much of a cook – everyone gravitated towards my grandmother. In later years she moved into my aunt’s house in New Jersey. The whole family would gather for holiday celebrations in the basement.
Half of former rock-soul duo Hall & Oates, John Oates, 76
We never had turkey for Thanksgiving, it was always Italian: lasagne or a big baked ziti [penne-style pasta]. My uncle served his homemade wine in little milk glasses.
When I was four we moved to Pennsylvania for my father’s job [designing electronic servers for aircraft guidance systems].
We were New Yorkers transplanted to this kind of rural Pennsylvania Dutch community. There was lots of German food: soft pretzel with mustard, scrapple [pork scraps, offal and spice in meatloaf form], souse [pig’s head terrine] and philly cheesesteak sandwich, the haute cuisine of Philadelphia!
It didn’t appeal, though. For me, Italian is the only food you could eat for the rest of your life and never repeat a dish.
On tour I enjoyed looking for local delicacies.
Hall & Oates went to Japan in the late 1970s and were one of the first Western groups popular there. There weren’t a lot of Westerners. You have that unique opportunity when you’re touring because you’re travelling to these places, whether a small town in Nebraska and you’re having an amazing steak or down south eating barbecue or incredible creole food in New Orleans.
New York was the source of some of my greatest meals ever.
Living there in the 70s and 80s was fantastic. We would go to Little Italy, and there was a restaurant called Joe’s. It was filled with real characters – colourful mob guys. There was a great restaurant called Marylou’s in Greenwich Village – owned by a friend, kind of an 80s hangout. I got inspired to write ‘Maneater’ while sitting in that restaurant.
John used to love dining in Greenwich Village
I love living in Nashville, which is where I am right now.
It’s an amazing city. Back in the 90s, when I first went with my wife Aimee, a floral designer, she would say, ‘God, we can’t get anything to eat.’ There was ‘meat and three’ [a dish of fried chicken or meatloaf with a side of collard greens, mac and cheese or green beans]. Now the city is growing like crazy, and with that comes a demand for a higher quality of food.
Meatballs were a childhood treat
I’m not a fan of Indian food.
I’m a wimp when it comes to heavy spicing or chilli heat. I don’t like coriander either. I love ice cream – but I can’t eat it any more, for many reasons, including what it does to my voice. It’s really sad.
My wife is on a health food kick so we have a lot of non-gluten things in the fridge, along with various cheeses, some salamis and a lot of fruit. The cherries are in season, from Washington, so I’m substituting fruit for the sweets that I used to eat. I love chocolate but am trying to avoid it. Listen, man, I’m in my 70s. ’ve got to do the best I can!
My last dinner would be lasagne or baked ziti.
And Italian sausage. If I was going nuts, I’d probably have a pork chop with apple sauce. And for dessert, I would go absolutely banana-split nuts with an ice-cream sundae!
Reunion, the new album by John Oates, is out now
