The best cooking, as anyone who’s been to a truly remarkable restaurant can tell you, is personal. Each night at Enoteca Maria a different grandmother—a nonna, as owner Jody Scaravella has dubbed them—takes the reins in the kitchen. The seed of what would become Enoteca Maria was planted after Scaravella lost his parents and grandparents. Adrift and craving the warmth he remembered from his nonna’s kitchen, he set his sights on an empty space next to Staten Island’s St. George theater, determined to open it as an Italian restaurant. On opening day six nonnas stood ready for a rush in the basement kitchen, but the restaurant stayed empty.