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Donna Lennard Of il Buco Restaurant On 90s Nostalgia, Thoughtful Expansion, And Hard-Earned Success

April 6, 2026·43 min·2 clips

Donna Lennard reveals how her fiancé's sudden death from a brain aneurysm accidentally launched Il Bucco.

It starts in Brooklyn, naturally. Keri Diamond brings Donna Lennard in through the downtown New York story of Il Buco, a place the transcript treats as a 1990s fixture that still has a hold on people. Then the path gets messier. Donna moves through film at NYU, serious personal loss, and a career turn that drops her into hospitality almost sideways. That is where the conversation gets good. It keeps circling back to how a small wine and tapas beginning became more serious about food without sanding off the feeling of discovery. Jody Williams matters here. So do Gary Robbins, Sandro Fioritti, and Sarah Jenkins, with each chef leaving a real mark on the menu. Keri catches the dishes that explain the place better than any pitch could. Donna points to gambas al sal, tuna with corona beans and fennel pollen, and the kale salad with Tuscan kale, anchovies, Caesar dressing, lemon, and garlic, the kind of dish regulars would miss loudly. The restaurant never sounds frantic. Donna talks about seasonal appetizers and daily entrees, which makes Il Buco feel alive without making it sound trend hungry. The growth stays measured: the original Il Buco, Il Buco Alimentari, Amagansett, Ibiza, plus the olive oil and vinegar line. Keri keeps the whole thing close to chefs, dishes, rooms, and her own affection for the place. Success arrives late, and it feels earned. By the end, the tribute is personal: Donna built something New Yorkers love, and Keri is one of them.

As heard by us

Donna Lennard's Il Buco story makes slow growth, menu memory, and downtown hospitality feel warm, earned, and lived in.

Donna Lennard's conversation with Keri Diamond has the easy pull of a good restaurant origin story: film school at NYU, early personal loss, a turn through Chanterelle, then Il Buco arriving almost by accident and slowly becoming a downtown New York fixture.

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Why you'd press play

Donna Lennard arrived at il Buco by accident in the nineties and never left.

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