Italian Festival to honor historic food businesses
Courtesy of Mary Colombo
Interior of former J.A. Rungo Grocery
Courtesy of Bob Dorisio
The 1966 grand opening of Dorisio Grocery
Courtesy of Michael Passalacqua
Angelo Passalacqua and Giacomina Cirlingione Passalacqua, immigrants from Sicily, founded the West Chestnut Spaghetti House at 955 W. Chestnut Street in 1939. After Angelo’s death in 1953, the family rechristened the restaurant in his name. It has remained in the family ever since.
Osso’s was founded by Calabrian immigrant Alfredo Osso and his son, Sam, in 1950 at 1200 Jefferson Ave in Washington. Sam’s daughters, Lisa Osso Hasson and Mindy Osso Earliwine, are the third-generation to run the shop, now at 90 Henderson Ave.
Courtesy of Jennifer Manfredi Foster
Washington Importing, a wholesale supplier of Italian specialties, was founded by the late Anthony S. and Jean Audia Yanni in 1965 at its current location, 756 Locust Ave.
Courtesy of Jennifer Manfredi Foster
For decades, Yanni’s Italian Market on Jefferson Avenue near Chestnut Street was the go-to for imported meats, cheeses and other specialties. Pictured is Anthony P. Yanni with imported cheese.
Courtesy of John DeFazio
Rungo Fruit Market founders Concetta “Constance” Amendola Rungo and husband Michael Rungo
Courtesy of Kristen Reda
A menu cover from the former Lou Reda’s restaurant
Owner Ben Audia is shown in this ad from the former Audia’s Tavern
Between 1880 and 1930, hundreds of Italian immigrants settled in the city of Washington. They were part of the great wave of more than four million immigrants, mostly from southern Italy and Sicily, who left poor economic and political conditions to find work and opportunity in the United States.
These immigrants not only brought their labor to Washington, but also their culinary traditions, which they shared in taverns, restaurants and groceries that sprung up across the city. Dozens of food establishments founded by immigrants and their descendants provided familiar foods to fellow Italians and introduced the broader community to Italian dishes, meats, cheeses and breads.
On Saturday, Sept. 24, the sixth annual Washington Italian Festival will recognize the city’s many Italian food entrepreneurs – from first-generation immigrants to later generations who carried on their traditions. The recognition will take place at the Community Pavilion, 139 South Main, at noon.
In conjunction with the festival, the Italian Heritage Collection at Citizens Library reached out to find the stories of Washington’s historic Italian food businesses. Here is a sampling of the stories we gathered.
Several Italian food businesses with roots in the immigrant generation are still operating, many decades after their founding.
Albano’s Produce
Frank Albano and Agnes Palermo Albano emigrated to Washington from Potenza, Basilica, in the early 1900s. Frank cultivated gardens with tomatoes, carrots, zucchini and other vegetables around Washington and initially sold produce from a truck.
Sons Frank Jr. and George went on to establish Albano’s Produce at 374 S. Main St. They also operated Albano’s Restaurant, which offered sandwiches and had a soda fountain. In the mid-1960s, the brothers converted the restaurant to a grocery store with meats, cheeses, and bread. Today, George’s son, Bill Albano, still runs the wholesale produce business at 16 South St.
Angelo’s
Angelo Passalacqua and Giacomina Cirlingione Passalacqua, immigrants from Sicily, founded the West Chestnut Spaghetti House at 955 W. Chestnut Street in 1939. After Angelo’s death in 1953, the family rechristened the restaurant in his name. It has remained in the family ever since.
After Angelo’s death, Giacomina operated the restaurant with son Silvio and daughter Carmelina. When Giacomina retired in 1958, Silvio and Carmelina carried on. When Carmelina retired in 1981, Silvio became the sole owner, bringing son Michael and daughter Tonne on board. Michael became sole owner in 1992 and moved the restaurant to a larger building at 2109 North Franklin Drive in 2008. Giacomina’s recipes, especially her lasagna, continue to inspire the menu of Washington’s longest-running Italian restaurant.
Osso’s Original Pizza
Osso’s was founded by Calabrian immigrant Alfredo Osso and his son, Sam, in 1950 at 1200 Jefferson Ave. Sam’s daughters, Lisa Osso Hasson and Mindy Osso Earliwine, are the third generation to run the shop, now at 90 Henderson Ave.
Osso’s is famous for 4-by-4-inch squares of airy pan pizza with a distinctive sauce and crunch. Each slice has a single circle of pepperoni on top. As in years past, customers gather at the counter – sometimes four rows deep at busy times – to order. Counter staff now write down orders, whereas in the past Alfredo and Sam kept track by memory. “They could remember a lot of orders,” said Lisa’s husband, Dave Hasson, who started working at the shop about 35 years ago.
In 2022, the price of a slice increased, a move that was difficult for a family that prides itself on keeping prices low. “We felt bad about it,” Dave said.
Union Grill
Union Grill at 13½ East Wheeling Street has deep roots in the Italian community, but the corner where it sits has been a location of hospitality for much longer. Since 1791, the site has been home to inns, taverns, and hotels.
The basement space known as the Union Grill was established in the 1930s by Giovanni “John” Valitutti and his wife, Christina Peduto Valitutti, immigrants from Bellosquardo, Province of Salerno, Campania.
“They didn’t have a kitchen, just a small workspace,” their daughter, Angela Valitutti McVeagh, said in a 2019 oral history recorded for the Italian Heritage Collection at Citizens Library. “My mother would make the (spaghetti) sauce at home and take it on the streetcar to the Union Grill.”
The restaurant’s name is a nod to the stonemasons and union workers who frequented the tavern. John Valitutti was a stonemason.
Subsequent owners of the Union Grill in the 1940s were Carmen Nicolella and Joe Tucci. Mickey Flynn, who has Italian heritage on his mother’s side, purchased the Union Grill in 1967. His daughter, Erin, is the current owner. The menu remains true to its Italian roots.
Washington Importing
Washington Importing, a wholesale supplier of Italian specialties, was founded by the late Anthony S. and Jean Audia Yanni in 1965 at its current location, 756 Locust Ave.
Anthony’s father, John Yanni, an immigrant from Calabria, founded the original Yanni’s Italian Market on Jefferson Avenue near Chestnut Street in 1932. For decades, Yanni’s was the go-to for imported meats, cheeses and other specialties.
Jean’s parents, Ben and Rose Rotunda Audia, ran Audia’s Tavern at the corner of Jefferson and Chestnut for many years. Audia’s is fondly remembered for its Italian dishes and generous-sized fish sandwiches, a mainstay for Italian Catholics on meat-free Fridays.
When the redevelopment of the Chestnut Street corridor led to the closure of Yanni’s in the 1960s, Anthony and Jean took the opportunity to reopen the store as Washington Importing in a new location. The store operated as a retail outlet for many years before focusing on wholesale.
The Yanni tradition continues 90 years later with the fourth generation of the family – Anthony P. Yanni, age 23 – now at the helm.
Gone but not forgotten
In addition to these long-standing establishments, the festival will honor others that currently serve the community, including Ala Maria, founded by Maria Musto Barron; The Dog House, originally founded by James “Jimmy” and Josephine “Jay” Ruscello Greco; Hungry Jose’s and Julian’s Catering, founded by Joe Pintola; and Regional Flavors, founded by Karl and Lois Matullo Pettit.
Many of Washington’s Italian-founded restaurants and taverns are now gone, but remain strong in memory. Here are a few.
Tower Restaurant
In May 2022, Washington said goodbye to Tower Restaurant after 67 years. Pete and Joe Provenzano, immigrants from Palermo, Sicily, founded Tower Restaurant in 1955 on Main Street. When Joe left the business in 1957, Pete and his wife, Lena Livolsi Provenzano (also a Sicilian native), reopened the restaurant at 680 W. Chestnut. The tower in the name refers to the turret on the building next to the Main Street location.
Pete and Lena’s only child, Anthony Provenzano, who had worked at the restaurant since its opening, purchased it in the late 1970s. Anthony’s daughter, Lisa Provenzano Steele, took over after her father died.
The Tower hosted hundreds of banquets and reunions over the years. Longtime customers came regularly for American-style home-cooked meals, as well as traditional Italian items.
“Some people came every night. It was like sitting down to their own dinner table,” said Lisa.
The extended Provenzano family operated a number of food businesses in Washington. Pete, Joe and their mother, Luisa, operated Penn Meats. Pete and Lena ran Lee Anne’s Tea Room. Younger brother Mike, among the first in his family born in the United States, founded Mike’s Packing Co. Another brother, Jim, ran Roadrunner Lounge (later called Provenzano’s Lounge).
Kozy Kottage and Peppino’s
Antonio and Nicolina Macchiarole Nicolella, immigrants from Bellosquardo, Province of Salerno, Campania, founded East Maiden Street’s Kozy Kottage, a restaurant known for Nicolina’s comforting Italian food.
Nicolina passed on her culinary talents to her sons, who created new opportunities to share homemade Italian food with the community.
In the 1950s, Bob Nicolella and his brother Joe launched HyFy, on Jefferson Avenue.
In 1963, Bob and his wife, Barbara, launched Peppino’s deli and catering at 10 W. Wylie Avenue. The name “Peppino’s” was inspired by a popular Italian song about a mouse named Peppino. In 1985, they reopened as Peppino’s Restaurant at 234 S. Main.
After Bob Nicolella died in 2012, Barbara and their adult children, Barbara, Tony and Rob, carried on at Peppino’s, even rebuilding the restaurant after an electrical fire in 2013. In 2017, they made the decision to close.
Sorrento’s/ Patsy’s Pizza
Brothers Lou and Baptiste Mazza, sons of Italian immigrants, founded Sorrento’s Restaurant on East Maiden Street in the 1940s. Lou’s wife, Sylvia, Baptiste’s wife, Louise, and a host of family members helped make the restaurant a success.
Sylvia and her brother-in-law, Joe, were the cooks, making everything from scratch. One morning in 1965, tragedy struck. A fire that started in the basement reached the living quarters above the restaurant. Sylvia, age 47, died in the fire. Her husband, Lou, who happened to be in the hospital the day of the fire, died four months later from cancer.
Sylvia and Lou’s only son, Patsy, dropped out of college and returned to Washington after the fire. He and his wife, Helen, who also grew up in Washington, created a new direction for their lives in memory of Sylvia and Lou. In 1966, Patsy’s Pizza was launched on South Main Street.
The shop was not just a business but a calling, Helen Mazza said about her late husband. “A whole generation of kids grew up in the pizza shop,” she said. “Patsy ‘adopted’ them.
“Kids ate pizza leaning on the railing outside the shop. They sat in cars in the parking lot and ate pizza,” Helen recalled. Mention of Patsy’s Pizza in the “You know you’re from Washington, PA …” Facebook group drew accolades from people who were teens in the 1960s: “Best pizza ever.” “Every weekend … Patsy’s.”
“Patsy’s Pizza was like Sorrento’s,” said Helen. “People felt at home there. Patsy took pleasure in feeding people.”
First Stop, Lou Reda’s and Primo’s
The late Lou Reda was at the heart of several Italian restaurants in Washington. He and partners Eugene Trapuzzano and Alfredo Trapuzzano operated the First Stop Restaurant in the restored Pennsylvania Railroad Freight station on West Chestnut Street from around 1980 to 1985.
Lou then opened Lou Reda’s Restaurant at 935 Jefferson Ave. In 1999, Lou and Rudy DiNardo opened Primo’s at 374 S. Main St. It closed when Lou retired in 2004 due to health reasons.
Lou was the son of Ralph and Lena Rungo Reda, who emigrated from Mendicino, Province of Cosenza, Calabria. Early in his career, Lou brought his culinary skills to Union Grill. Among his longtime specialties were fried greens, stuffed eggplant and veal pomodoro.
In addition to being a chef and restaurateur, Lou was a barber with two shops, one on South College and one on North Main. He was also an entertainer, known for donning a tuxedo and top hat and singing “New York, New York” for the late evening guests at his restaurants. The atmosphere in his restaurants was high energy, said his daughter, Kristen Reda. “Always a party.”
In addition to these now-closed restaurants, the festival will honor many others, including Carmen’s Lounge, Club 21, Club 40, Diamond Grill, Interval’s Restaurant, Little Chef, Len’s Restaurant, Monaco Lounge, Monterey, The Palace, Pareso’s Pizza, Stack’s Homestead and Stack’s Cafeteria, the Townhouse, and Washington Restaurant.
Washington’s Italian immigrants also founded many “mom and pop” markets. Among the many that will be honored at the festival are Beau Mart, Bellotti’s/Valley Food Market, Cario’s, Dorisio’s, Frank’s Deli, Marino’s, Oliverio’s, Rungo’s Fruit Market, J.A. Rungo Grocery, and Sonson’s Produce.
And no celebration of Washington’s historic Italian food is complete without mention of Selvaggi Bros. Bakery, founded by Floyd “Foley” Selvaggi in 1905 on Ohio Street in Canton Township and later run by his sons, Floyd and Camillo. Small by today’s standards, the bakery produced hundreds of loaves per day for restaurants, groceries and retail customers before closing.
Tina Calabro is the voluntary project manager of the Italian Heritage Collection, Citizens Library. The project continues to information about Washington’s Italian food businesses. Email tina.calabro@verizon.net or call 412-818-9169.