This is Vito’s Italian restaurant. It’s not the original location. Joe Vito, owner of Vito’s Italian restaurant felt as if he needed to move back to his ancestral home of Bari, Puglia Region, Italy because he had been ill. He sold the old place.
No, Adrianne, you will note that I wasn’t able to incorporate anything to do with Hitler or his parts but, since you are a practicing Italian and master chef, I am dedicating lunch to you today.
 |
| Vito’s small sausage sandwich with extra pepperocini. |
He recovered his health and returned to the US after a seven year absence and opened a new restaurant. The meal made for me today (above) by his wife met the gold standard for great Italian cooking: Crusty, delicious, bread, fresh from the oven there on premises; home made sausage; home made marinara and cheeses imported from Italy. I ordered the small 16″ sandwich because the 20″ sandwich (man sized) was simply too much for me to down all by myself irrespective of the ardent desire to eat more. (I’d have had to barf first to accomplish that.) Mama was a little hurt that I passed on the antipasto salad to start. Again, unless you eat more than you can lift (literally), mama and papa feel that you didn’t eat enough.
When Pope John Paul II (Karol Józef Wojtyła) visited Los Angeles in 1987, he had a very busy schedule but visited Joe Vito’s humble restaurant to bless both Joe, the food and the building. A photo of that blessed event still hangs in the current restaurant as a moment of a great moment that has now passed. The question before me as I ate my sandwich today, was whether the current pontiff (Francis, an Argentine collectivist) would bless the restaurant today the way Pope John Paul II, a hero of freedom, capitalism and western values did.
When you consider that Vitos has always been a place where the police have congregated for great food and to share company with great people, I doubt that Pope Francis would show. And it would be Francis’ loss, because the hole-in-the-wall family Italian joints seem to put out the very best food, worthy of a pope’s blessing.
buon appetito! And all cooked by a blessed being. That's what you call wholesome fodder!
There's a fabulous little Italian deli here in Long Beach (Lakewood, actually) called "Foggia's".
If/when you get up this way you should try it.
foggiadeli.com/
But did the Pontiff bless the food?
My sense is that you won't gain weight from eating here since there is a papal dispensation that covers the place.
No, but Tony Soprano and Silvio did….
A blessing from Tony and Silvio (and my cousin Vinny) is almost as good as a Papal blessing.
I'm honored to have a sandwich of such perfection dedicated to me.
Mr. Vito is absolutely gorgeous in that picture with the Pope.
*Mrs* not Mr (although he's not bad either.
Looks so good! Wish we had a blessed place to eat Italian. Guess I will have to ask the BIL, and nephews where the LEOs eat.
I'm with you on that. The My Cousin Vinny thing tips the scales as would 'Tony Soprano'.
It's never a bad idea to eat where the cops and firemen do.
That looks very tasty. Well done Vito's, well done Italian cooking and well done Pope.
Would Justin Welby bless your hawg? Maybe he could do it on-line?
These meal posts are killing my diet, Larry.
My only saving grace is that I know the meals you're eating are better than what I could run out and find here, so there's no point trying to fill the craving.
(Laughed out loud at the idea of a dispensation rendering calories nil! Genius.)
I'm not sure if Justsin's "blessing" would be helpful…
Those hole in the walls are great places!!! Sadly, they're being pushed out of business by chains and 'regulations'…
You've got to 'believe'.
Not many left.
Comments are closed.