Mangia!
Italian Restaurant Families Share a Legacy of Good Food & Hospitality
Italian Family Restaurants
We are lucky to have many generational Italian restaurants in the North Bay. These longtime establishments contribute as much to the fabric of their communities as the families who run them. They know their patrons well, many of whom have been dining with them for years.
Angelino
Though Ethel Merman (courtesy of Irving Berlin) may sing the same about Broadway, it is often said that there’s no business like a family-run business and the Ancona family’s Sausalito restaurant is no exception. Siblings Alfredo and Teresa run the business their parents Pasquale and Donna started in 1983, tilting the menu a bit more southern Italian to reflect the family’s roots in Torre del Greco, a town in Vesuvius’s shadow.
As it’s done in Italy, “ingredients really decide where I am going with the menu,” Alfredo says. Regulars, some who continue to visit after 40 years, make frequent requests: linguini vongole, petrale sole, chicken diavola. Is it a secret menu? “You can call it that,” he says. Finding the balance between oft-requested dishes and newer fare is often a local restaurant’s biggest challenge. “How do you respect and build on the old and keep up with the new?” Alfredo says. He suggests asking Pasquale, who still comes in to work seven days a week.
AngelinoRestaurant.com 621 Bridgeway, Sausalito
La Ginestra and Marin Joe’s
The pandemic infuriated Maria Aversa, the original proprietor with her husband, Salvatore, of Mill Valley’s 60-year-old restaurant. “Having grown up during the war, Mom had an attitude that, as long as you can eat and pay your bills, you get through it,” says Aversa’s daughter Lucia. The Sorrento Aversas, who arrived in Sausalito via work at the home of the French Consul of San Francisco—Salvatore was a chauffeur and Maria helped out in the household—soon transferred their skills to Napoli’s iconic pizza. “It was a pizzeria and restaurant and now more of a restaurant with pizza,” jokes Tino (Costantino), who along with older sister, Lucia, and older brother, Fabio, now owns and operates the restaurant.
The ravioli, on the menu for at least 40 years, are traditional to Sorrento, as wide as a fist and stuffed with spinach and cheese. Tino updates the dish for today’s audiences with fresh veggies next to the dish, rather than spaghetti.
Lucia, who married Ralph Della Santina, owner of Marin Joe’s with his brother, Paul, juggles multiple families and restaurants. “Joe’s opened 10 years before La Ginestra,” Lucia says. “Ralph and I knew each other since we were kids.” The three siblings intend to keep the business going for the next generation to take over.
LaGinestraMV.com 127 Throckmorton, Mill Valley
Volpi’s
At 99 years old, Volpi’s is the longest-running intergenerational Italian restaurant in the North Bay. Opened in 1925 by Silvio and Mary Volpi and now run by Deanna Volpi, the restaurant is still owned by John and Mary Lee, Deanna’s parents. The Petaluma grocery store and deli with a bar in the back morphed into a gourmet deli before spending its last 31 years as a restaurant. Volpi describes the cuisine as “old North Beach,” with staples like creamy polenta and house-made pastas as popular as ever. “We want to keep it going,” Volpi says.
VolpisRistorante.com 124 Washington St, Petaluma
Negri’s
Amanda Negri’s great-grandfather Joe once ran three restaurants in Occidental. Though the pandemic rearranged the business’s proportions, shrinking it from 300 seats, seven days a week, to a 100-seat, three-day-per-week operation (Fridays/Saturdays/Sundays), Negri’s 91-year-old grandmother, Evelyn, still owns the business while mom, Sandy, and sister, Tori, help manage the day-to-day. The smaller restaurant operates in what was the original bar area, while the larger room hosts banquets and other special events. “It actually made it so our family can be a family outside of the restaurant,” Negri says. Covid’s silver lining?
NegrisRestaurant.com 3700 Bohemian Hwy, Occidental
Catelli’s
Executive Chef Domenica and her brother, Nicholas Catelli, are the third generation of the family to run their eponymously named restaurant in Geyserville. Originally opened in 1936 by Santi and Virginia Catelli, the restaurant maintains its connection to the past through recipes for Virginia’s minestrone while creating new classics like Domenica’s updated tomato sauce.
MyCatellis.com 21047 Geyserville Ave, Geyserville
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