Charles Giachinta, best known in town as the beloved manager of Liz’s Café, Anybody’s Bar for the past nine seasons, died at his Provincetown home on Sept. 1, 2025. The cause was suicide. He was 54.
In outpourings of shock, grief, and love, friends have been remembering Chuck in social media posts as a kind, sweet man, “an amazing soul,” and “one of Provincetown’s brightest lights.”
“He wasn’t just a manager, he was more than that,” said Liz Lovati, owner of Liz’s Café. “He treated this restaurant like it was his own and referred to it as his baby, building it to what it is with his vision and his hard work. Chuck was magic, magic, magic.”
Born on April 10, 1971 in Cold Spring, N.Y. to the late Barbara Giachinta, a hotel manager, and Aurelio Giachinta, a truck driver, Chuck was the youngest of six children. He began to hone his hospitality skills when he was a teenager, working under the tutelage of his mother as she managed the Bear Mountain Inn in New York.
He studied business management at Florida Atlantic University and was living in both Rehoboth Beach, Del. and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where he was hired to train staff at a new restaurant, Kaluz, in 2012. Ronnie Joling, a server there, befriended Chuck right away.
“We immediately hit it off and just had so much fun working together,” Ronnie said. “He made everybody laugh.” After getting that restaurant up and running, Chuck announced that he was moving to Provincetown — and Ronnie followed him here the following summer. “We’ve been chosen family ever since,” he said, remembering Chuck as having “a way of making anything funny” and as someone with whom he and their friends enjoyed “epic” dining-out adventures.
In Provincetown, Chuck’s work made him a familiar face at many establishments, including Bayside Betsy’s and Dalla Cucina, where he was a server; Joon Bar, where he was a bartender; and Liz’s Café, Anybody’s Bar, before very recently moving on to Helltown Kitchen.
Chuck worked at Liz’s alongside his husband, Ryan Pimentel; the two met in town a decade ago and were married here in 2022.
“He had a rare gift for making people feel seen, safe, and special,” said Ryan. “His brilliant smile and limitless heart left a lasting impression on everyone who met him. He made Provincetown more magical for those lucky enough to cross his path. There truly are no words to capture the depth of who Chuck was.”
Liz met Chuck in 2015 when they began working together at Angel’s Breakfast, which she opened at the Gifford House. “The best thing that came out of operating there was Chuck,” she said, because he was full of great ideas not only for the business but for the menu. “He was the total package, and he pushed me.”
When she opened Liz’s Café, Anybody’s Bar in 2017, she said, “I only knew what I knew from Café Heaven in the 1990s and early 2000s. I didn’t know the trends.” For example, Chuck wanted meatballs on the menu for years, she said, and it was a while until she reluctantly gave in. “I probably sold 2,000 meatballs in two years!” she added.
Chuck spearheaded special wine dinners and a Mardi Gras night in the winter and was “laser-focused” on keeping the restaurant open through Covid, working with Ryan to reimagine the parking lot as a festive, hopping scene of igloo-covered tables and prompting Liz to post a big thank you and a note saying, “We wouldn’t be here without you two!” on social media in 2020.
“Chuck was always looking for a way to satisfy the year-round people with something extraordinary and keep us relevant,” Liz said. “I never had to worry because of his attention to detail. He had that something that went beyond hospitality. His mother taught him the restaurant business, and it was in his blood.”
Chuck, in turn, taught Liz’s daughter, Caroline, the art of being a good hostess, a skill she’s proud of, Liz said. “I loved him. He’s been in my corner forever.”
In his downtime, Chuck enjoyed running and going to the beach with his dog, Mario. “He was the most loving person,” Ryan said. “Whatever anybody needed, he was there immediately. He literally put everybody else first.”
He also loved to travel and spend time with his family, said his sister Susan, adding that Chuck “lit up a room when he walked in.”
Susan Tran befriended Chuck when she was dining at Joon Bar with friends and he was their server. “He was this handsome man,” she said, “and at the end of the meal he was telling us about dessert, and he said the special was bread pudding, and I looked at him and said, ‘You’re a bread pudding!’ ” She often arrived from Boston late on a Friday, just when Liz’s Café was closing for the night, and they would hang out at her house with a charcuterie plate and bottle of cabernet.
“There was an entire community that loved him,” Susan said. “I think he epitomized what hospitality meant — making you feel at home, welcomed, and taken care of, even in the depths of summer, when it can be daunting. He was endlessly full of warmth and joy.”
Just before his death, she and Chuck were supposed to go on a walk together. He canceled, she said, “and I’ve been devastated ever since.”
Chuck is survived by his husband, Ryan Pimentel; sister Christine Kellar and husband John of Pleasant Valley, N.Y.; sister Susan Giachinta of Fishkill, N.Y.; brother Thomas Giachinta and wife Debbie of Cold Spring, N.Y.; brother John Giachinta of Cold Spring, N.Y.; many nieces and nephews; and his dog, Mario. He was predeceased by his brother Joseph.
Details of two memorial gatherings that are being planned — one in Provincetown and another in Cold Spring — have not yet been announced.
