Restaurateur Emilio Vitolo Jr. Is Engaged to Sammy Piccininni: 'Love You to Infinity and Beyond' (Exclusive)

The couple began dating in August 2022 and share a 6-month-old daughter

Marriage is next on the menu for chef and restaurateur Emilio Vitolo Jr. and his girlfriend Sammy Piccininni.

The couple — who have been together since August 2022 and welcomed a daughter, Angelina Marie, in June — got engaged on New Year’s Eve at Vitolo’s New York City speakeasy Da Milio. They announced their engagement via Instagram on New Year's Day.

Piccininni opened the post with the date of the engagement before she went on to gush about her fiancé. "Starting this new year off in the best way imaginable. It is the honor of my life to get to spend forever with you, my soulmate," she wrote. "I love you more and more with each day that passes my baby. I thank God every day for you."

"Love you to infinity and beyond !!❤️❤️," Vitolo, 34, commented on the post, which featured a video of the couple kissing after he popped the question.

Days after the proposal, Vitolo gave PEOPLE exclusive details about the big night — which he saw as the perfect way to close out a monumental year.

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"I said 2023 was going to be my year, and honestly it was,” he says. "I got engaged, I had a beautiful child. My daughter is six months now. I opened up [Da Milio], so I got a lot of s--- that I could gladly check off the box."

Vitolo proposed in front of a small group of close family and friends at Da Milio, which is located around the corner from his family's famed Italian restaurant, Emilio's Ballato, a favorite of A-listers like Taylor Swift, George Clooney and Lenny Kravitz. While preparing to pop the question, Vitolo admits, "I was super f----ing nervous.”

Vitolo — who is also an actor — says he and Piccininni are in no rush to plan the wedding just yet, as they're soaking up this current moment. "We'll see what happens. For me, I don't like forcing anything. [We] just got engaged. There's no reason to put a flame on it," he says.

Related: Inside the Celeb-Loved Italian Restaurant Where Taylor Swift and Blake Lively Had a Girls Night

Along with running Da Milio and Emilio’s Ballato, Vitolo also has his hands full with his latest job: as girl dad.

"Having a girl is the greatest thing,” he says. "I had my habits back in the day, and it really didn't click in until my daughter first smiled at me and first laughed at me, and then I was just like, something just snapped in my brain."

In everything he does, Vitolo says Piccininni and Angelina are at the top of his mind.

“[Sammy’s] a great mother, and she takes care of the baby very well,” he says. "I'm lucky."

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