They say that eating a Mediterranean diet will help you live longer, but perhaps there’s something to serving that food and drink, too.
Italian-American restaurants seem to be among the longest-lived in this region, where some that started in the 1930s still are going strong.
Angelo’s Restaurant near Washington, PA, which started as a tavern that served some spaghetti in 1939 and will mark 80 years under the same family next spring, isn’t even the oldest. That distinction appears to belong to Noviello’s Sunset Cafe in Greensburg, which started in 1933 in the Pantalone family’s living room.
Rizzo’s Malabar Inn in nearby Crabtree, Westmoreland County, started as the Malabar Inn in 1935.
We have lost some old-timers. Carbone’s -— also in Crabtree — closed this past July after an 80-year run that started in 1938. LoBello’s 5th Ave. Spaghetti House in Coraopolis, the sign of which proudly proclaimed “Since 1944,” closed in 2017. In 2013, we lost two heavyweights: one of the last Tambellini restaurants, Tambellini Seventh Street Ristorante in Downtown, and Minutello’s in Shadyside.
But we still have long runners such as Bloomfield’s Pleasure Bar (1941, once a hangout for Pittsburgh Hornets players), Segneri’s Italian Restaurant in Corapolis (1954), Woody’s Italian Restaurant in Versailles (1958) and Tillie’s Restaurant in McKeesport (1962). Jean Lenzi opened Lenzi’s in Monongahela in 1962 near the original hotdog shop, the Starlight Inn, that her father founded in 1940.
Restaurants that opened in the 1970s (Rico’s in Ross in 1979) and 1980s (Pasta Too in Bethel Park) seem young by comparison. But it’s even an achievement to still be open since the 1990s as have several, including Calabria’s and Carbonara’s in Castle Shannon, Gran Canal Caffe in Sharpsburg and Alla Famiglia in Allentown.
Farther out in the region are landmarks such as Figaretti’s in Wheeling, W.Va. (1958) and Minard’s Spaghetti Inn in Clarksburg, W.Va. (1937).
Philadelphia has two Italian restaurants that date back to the 1899 and 1900: Dante & Luigi’s (that serves spaghetti and other pastas with “Italian gravy”) and Ralph’s Italian Restaurant.
Of course, those are youngsters compared to America’s oldest Italian restaurant, which, even though it’s been in several locations and under several owners, is San Francisco’s Fior d’Italia, which opened in 1886.
Bob Batz Jr.: bbatz@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1930 and on Twitter @bobbatzjr.
First Published: November 5, 2018, 1:00 p.m.
