Over the weekend, Angelo’s Civita Farnese restaurant on Federal Hill in Providence held its 100th birthday party. During the Friday kick-off for the weekend’s festivities, the restaurant was jam-packed with politicos, as it has been for decades. Both U.S. senators, the speaker of the Rhode Island House of Representatives, and the mayor of Providence mingle with faithful customers sitting shoulder to shoulder in cozy booths that looked like they were out of a soda fountain in the 1950s. The window sills were adorned with flowers and classic Italian-American decorations like a fake, epoxied pile of pasta.
Senator Jack Reed was among the politicians who spoke at the party honoring the restaurant.
“First of all, the food is delicious. And you always felt like part of the family too when you came in. It was just, you know, nothing fancy. Nothing formal, just delicious food and nice people,” said Reed.
For years, Angelo’s has been serving politicians like Reed, along with Buddy Cianci, Rudy Giuliani, and former Governor Lincoln Almond. The people watching and elbow rubbing is one reason to come to Angelo’s, but it’s not the main reason that’s kept people coming back since 1924.
“The food is consistent, but one thing is also consistent: whether it’s been your first time here or your 10,000th time here, no matter who you are, it’s like family,” said David Tikoian, a former major of the state police and a current state senator for North Providence. “And I’m fond of the veal parm and the French fries as well.”
Tikoian was sitting at a table topped with a makeshift vase of saporito brand tomatoes, filled with uncooked spaghetti and fresh produce for decoration.
Local food critic and blogger David Dadekian said he has been coming to Angelo’s for “literally forever.” He said, when at Angelo’s, it is mandatory for one to order a dish called pastine that has been on the menu since 1924. Pastine is little pearls of couscous-shaped pasta served in a steaming umami clear broth.
“One of the simplest things in the world, but it’s so delicious. You can’t not have it. It’s one of those things that, you know, takes you back to your childhood,” he said.
According to a Providence Journal obituary, the original owner, Angelo Mastrodicasa, was born in a small village inland in the region of Abruzzo in Italy. He moved to the U.S. when he was 20 and opened Angelo’s at the age of 36. He then handed down the restaurant to his four daughters, who ran it for more than 30 years. All in all, four different generations worth of family owners have stewarded Angelo’s. One person has remained in the back of the house since the 1970s: Executive Chef Jose Lopes.
“I’ve been here 49 years, this has been my home,” he said.
On Friday, Lopes stood in the back of his kitchen, surveying his staff: there’s an expediter, a pasta cook, a fry cook, and a dishwasher all working together to turn out Angelo’s dishes. Lopes had laid out many chicken cutlets for tenderizing, ready to be turned into all chicken parm everything.
Lopes said the biggest change he’s seen as chef is that customers used to prefer their pasta more al dente back when more immigrants from Italy came to Angelo’s. Now it’s more customers expecting Italian-American style pasta that’s usually more well-cooked.
Lopes said he feels lucky to have found Angelo’s. He said the restaurant saved him. His parents sent him to the U.S. from Cape Verde when he was a young teenager but it took him a little while to get on his feet.
“I was not on the streets but I was very insecure. So Angelo’s became more like a safety place for me,” he said.
Angelo’s newest owner, Jamie Antignano, has been the owner for about six years. The 29-year-old has a background in marketing and finance, and is always thinking about how she can keep her restaurant alive through possible expansions, social media, by asking her chef to help create some new recipes to keep things fresh, and even through a new line of pasta sauce-scented candles.
“It’s all about honoring the past, but really celebrating the future. And we love trying things, introducing new recipes, seeing the trends, but making them ours. And I think it’s so important to be adaptive,” she said.
Looking around at the tables, dishes that have been on the menu for a hundred years and new additions appear to be coexisting harmoniously. Antignano hopes it will be that way for another hundred years.