Remembering Carol Serena, longtime general manager of Parc, who died at 57

If you’ve ever sipped a glass of wine at a sunny sidewalk table or enjoyed a plate of oysters at the cozy bar at Parc restaurant on Rittenhouse Square, it’s quite likely that Carol Serena played a role in the experience.

She was Parc’s general manager from shortly after its opening in 2008 until she left in 2022. Ms. Serena, who died Sept. 25 of a heart attack at her nearby apartment, will be remembered Wednesday — on what would have been her 58th birthday — with a memorial service in Rittenhouse Square.

Ms. Serena — born and raised in Brooklyn, the seventh of eight children — worked early in her career for China Grill Management and Planet Hollywood. In March 2008, she moved to Philadelphia and joined Starr Restaurants to help run Tangerine, a now-shuttered romantic Mediterranean-Middle Eastern restaurant in Old City. She transferred to Parc as a manager four months later for its opening on July 14 and stepped into the top role five weeks later after the general manager left abruptly.

Ms. Serena liked to say, “Running Parc is not for the weak or the meek” — given that it is one of the busiest restaurants in the country, with reported annual sales exceeding $20 million while seating more than 350,000 guests, according to Restaurant Business, a trade publication.

On many days, Ms. Serena logged 30,000 steps on her iPhone’s Health app while overseeing more than 200 employees and tending to the needs of Parc’s clientele — a mix of dealmakers, society swells, families, tourists, and the locals who treat the restaurant, at 18th and Locust Streets, as their corner diner.

Ms. Serena helped blaze the way for many women in restaurant managerial roles in Philadelphia. “She was near and dear to my heart,” said Randi Sirkin, a friend since 2008 and now vice president of creative services at Starr. “We came up in the generation of making a connection to our guests, and I related to her on so many levels as the foundation of both our careers was deeply rooted in providing guests with experiences that exceeded expectations. I’ve never met someone with a truer connection to her guests and the community she loved.”

Lou Ann Brantly, who met Ms. Serena during her 2012 interview for a manager’s job at the neighboring Barclay Prime, said that whenever she had an issue, “we would meet in the back alley behind Barclay Prime, and Carol would give me advice. She was just a love and a joy. Hospitality just oozed out of her.”

Brantly recalled that one of Ms. Serena’s Parc customers once wanted a Barclay Prime steak. “Do you know she called me and made that happen and we had a server deliver it from Barclay Prime to the front of Parc?” Brantly said.

Samantha Trasatti, a close friend who met Ms. Serena years ago while tending bar at the nearby Rouge, attributed Ms. Serena’s knack for hospitality to her upbringing in a big family. “Her mother was always making an extra dish because there was always an extra mouth to feed,” she said. “She understood what an actual hard day was, and she just never wanted that for other people. She saw everybody as an equal and treated everybody like they were VIP, and I think that’s why everybody loved her so much. It didn’t matter if you were literally the president or a busboy.”

Nicole Bell, who worked for Ms. Serena at Parc, called her “an icon and a pillar of hospitality. She put that first and foremost in her daily decision-making process. Carol always extended that care and hospitality.”

Once during her shift, Bell recalled hearing a rush of activity along the Locust Street outdoor dining area. Someone had stolen the cell phone from a Parc customer off the table. “She took off and chased after him down 18th Street until the cops got there and got the phone back,” Bell said.

Ms. Serena’s fearlessness was on display in 2014 when she rappelled 31 stories down a Center City skyscraper for charity after chugging half a cup of coffee and half a Red Bull. Afterward, she worked a 10-hour shift.

A customer, Crystal Casazza, said Ms. Serena had “the unique gift of making everyone feel like her favorite.” Casazza said her daughter Charlie was less than a week old when she and her husband, Chris, took her to Parc in 2018 and parked her pram next to the bar. As soon as she could speak, Charlie called Parc ‘Carol’s House,’” Casazza said. “We call it that to this day, and we always will.”

Ms. Serena is survived by a brother, Christopher Serena, sisters Barbara Serena and Terry Sautner, and seven nieces and nephews.

Family and friends recommend a donation to Friends of Rittenhouse Square, which plans to plant a magnolia tree in the park in her honor. Wednesday’s service, during which a bench will be dedicated in her honor, will begin at 3 p.m. near the 18th Street entrance. A reception at Parc will follow.