Chef Jeanine marks 10 years at the View Grill

Communities like Glen Cove flourish thanks to the selfless nature of residents like Jeanine DiMenna. While feeding the city for 30 years, she has brought people together with her passion for food and her compassion toward others. This year marks her 10-year anniversary as owner of the View Grill.

Through her decades of service to her community, she’s helped create touching memories with the people around her. 

Councilwoman Barbara Peebles fondly remembers the many lunches she has shared with her mother at the restaurant. When Peebles’ mother died five years ago, DiMenna stepped out of her kitchen and brought comfort and laughter to Peebles’ grieving family at the funeral reception. 

“Jeanine, of course, is a young legend in our city,” Peebles said. “She makes every single event feel like it’s a family event. Everyone has stories like that about her.”

DiMenna’s journey to the hearts of Glen Cove residents began when she was a teenager. 

She hung out with her friends in front of the Tiffany House Restaurant at the Glen Cove Golf Course, and her loud music soon caught the attention of the owners. 

“Eventually, they got tired of chasing us away and tried a different solution,” DiMenna said. “They invited me inside and hired me to wash dishes.”

Not long after she started washing dishes, she realized her culinary talent. She worked at the restaurant through high school, ascending from doing prep work and dishwashing to sharing the duties of head chef at age 19.

DiMenna’s love of cooking led her to study at the New York Institute of Technology’s Culinary Arts Program. She then worked at the Harrison House, now the Glen Cove Mansion, for over a decade. In 1997, she decided that it was time to move on in her career and became the assistant chef at Page One Restaurant in Glen Cove. She was promoted to executive chef within a year and became part owner. After nearly two decades of success there, an opportunity presented itself that she couldn’t pass up. She closed Page One and opened The View Grill.

Acquiring the restaurant brought her full circle, and since then she has received numerous awards, honors, and recognition from both the city and state. She was also featured on the Food Network’s Casino Kitchen in 2014, but one of DiMenna’s biggest accomplishments has been spreading her kind and generous nature through food. 

Even though the coronavirus pandemic thrust her into what she called the most difficult time of her life, DiMenna helped others who had fallen on even harder times. 

When a fire destroyed Nosh headquarters, an extension of the North Shore Soup Kitchen, in August of 2020, the organization lost about two months’ worth of food for the 600 families the nonprofit serves. After hearing about the devastating loss, DiMenna offered Nosh space to store donations, and offered the restaurant’s parking lot to set up tents and tables for bi-weekly pickups.

“After our fire we didn’t have a place to do anything,” Linda Eastman, Nosh co-founder, said. “She was so gracious in allowing us to use her space. With such an open heart and open arms, constantly, she’s a rare person.”

DiMenna’s authentic nature has also inspired loyalty among her staff. Rachel Bueno relationship with DiMenna started when she was a student taking an adult education cooking class being taught by DiMenna. Originally, Bueno took the class to experience delicious food and cooking tips. When she got to know DiMenna better, she went to work for her. 

“Even though she’s my boss, she doesn’t feel like she’s my boss,” Bueno said. “She doesn’t have to tell you what to do, she’ll ask you. She’s the only person I could work for. I couldn’t work for anybody else.”

DiMenna was also instrumental in the growth of the North Shore Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. When the chamber was formed in early 2020, they hadn’t established relationships with local restaurants yet. DiMenna knew the newly established chamber was tight on funding events and meetings and worked with them to establish an affordable per-person cost for events at her restaurant. 

“She actually calls to check up to see how we’re doing,” Connie Pinilla, the chamber’s president and co-founder, said. “She takes the initiative to make sure that we’re doing okay. I genuinely love her because she’s a good soul.”