It’s the only place in New York where you can take the gun and the cannoli.
Secreted away behind the brick façades of three brownstones in Greenwich Village is the oldest Italian heritage club in the country, Tiro a Segno – a storied, members-only venue that has lavished cultural luminaries and political bigwigs with fine cuisine between rounds in the basement shooting range.
“That is really an homage to our heritage, more than something that’s really current,” John Vincenti, the club’s vice president of operations, told The Post of the three-spot, 50-foot shooting gallery.
Tiro a Segno was founded in 1888 as a sportsman’s club and members indulged in their hunting hobby at a private preserve on Staten Island. But the club – referred to simply as “Tiro” by those in the know – turned over the preserve during World War I, and relocated to its current, MacDougal Street outpost in the 1920s.
“Gradually, as its members assimilated into American society, it became more of a family and social and business club. But we have that throwback to our roots,” Vincenti said of the gun range, which he estimated that members use at least a few times a week.
The range is permitted through the NYPD, and is also registered with the FDNY and the state police, he said.
“We work with an attorney who keeps us in compliance,” Vincenti explained.
In fact, the name Tiro a Segno translates to “fire at the target” – an apt title for a place where, today, .22s and the food still rarely miss the mark.
“There’s nothing typical,” club president Bob Aversano told The Post of the dining room menu, which features classics as well as Italian riffs on dishes from other cultures.
The club, however, was keen to stress that the club was “more than a dining room,” putting on as many as 60 events a year to promote the Italian way.
But those looking to join the ranks of auspicious late members like Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia and the tenor Enrico Caruso don’t actually need to claim any part of the Boot in their heritage, Averson and Vincenti clarified.
The vetting process, however, is far from casual: “It’s very important that we maintain the kind of the social fabric, that we need to be a harmonious club, so we spend quite a bit of time vetting the applicants,” Vincenti admitted.
Vincenti declined to disclose the club’s upfront membership cost and annual fee, but offered that the total is “comparable” to that of other exclusive New York clubs, like the Union, where annual fees are reportedly around $5,000 a year.
Another potential obstacle for any would-be Tiro diner is the strict dress code, which demands a collared shirt and jacket for men – including former New York Gov. Hugh Carey, who was once left dismayed when the club hostess insisted he get properly kitted out before dinner, the New York Times reported in 1988.
Jackets aside, Tiro a Segno is certainly not a stranger to political grandstanding: In 2002, club member and NYSE honcho Richard A. Grasso hosted tense negotiations between then-Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and securities regulators in the dining room, the Times said.
The peace talks supposedly got off to a rocky start when Spitzer suggested that the club looked like something out of “The Sopranos” – though his office later denied that he made the comment.
Those who call Tiro a Segno home, however, say the community is well worth the occasional brush of infamy.
“Every time I bring someone there, they always remember the uniqueness of it,” New Jersey resident Bob Competiello, a Tiro member of nearly 20 years, told The Post.
“I was taken there by a broker on the New York Stock Exchange in the late 80s, and I always wanted to be a member. And then a friend invited me in 2006 for dinner, and I explored membership and got in the next year,” he said of the club, which he described as a very “family-oriented” destination.
John Vincente agreed, having grown up around Tiro a Segno thanks to his father’s own five-decade affiliation.
“We used to go a lot on Sundays. I think my parents used it as training grounds to make sure I could behave when I was taken out to dinner,” he recalled of his childhood at the MacDougal Street brownstone.
“I remember my younger brother and I running up and down the stairs, playing around…we would just run all over the club like it was our living room,” he laughed.
For those who might be interested in joining the fold, Vincente and Aversano offered one bit of consiglio, or advice.
“Our club is a very old club with a mission of promoting and sharing Italian culture with others. We want to disseminate Italian culture, not just to the members and guests but through our foundation also to the public,” they said.
Culture, fine dining, and occasional target practice – with an offer like that, who could refuse?
