Lost Tables: Paolo & Concetta

La Famiglia Manno

Part Two: Paolo & Concetta

Paolo "Paul" Manno was born in Palermo on August 27, 1939 — the first boy after four girls.

My father was so happy to have a boy. He always took me with him. He was in the horse trade business. He would buy and sell horses, for carriages and for meat. He would sell them to the butchers.

He would take me with him all the time. I enjoyed seeing my father applying tricks. He knew everything about horses. He would open their mouth; he knew how old they were. He was really a specialist.

I went to school. I wanted to be a sailor, to be perhaps an officer of the deck on a ship. But I didn’t end up like that.

In 1956, Paul immigrated to the United States with his father and his sister Anna. Nathan Tureen paid for their tickets. When they arrived in St. Louis, father and son both worked for Tureen at Northwestern Cooperage.

I started working over there in the factory with my father. It wasn’t my kind of work. I’d never seen anything like that. The job was so heavy, I couldn’t even write. I was really tired at night. It was a hard job. I could maybe find a better job, but I was fresh from school.

We paid back Mr. Tureen everything that he gave us. He took a little bit every day. He even setup our furniture. We rented an apartment on North Broadway. He and his brother drove a truck full of furniture and helped us get setup. A wonderful man. A Jewish person. And he loved my dad. He loved me.


Paul Manno	Francesco Paolo Manno

As the only son in his family, Paul felt an obligation to take care of his sisters. When Anna came to St. Louis with her father and brother, she was already engaged to John Mineo. After a year, Paul accompanied her to New York and put her on a ship to Palermo to get married. When Anna came back to St. Louis with her husband, Paul found them a place to stay and helped John Mineo get a job.

First, I wanted to take him to the factory, to the Cooperage. But he was kind of a thin fellow. That job wouldn’t be good for him. So, I thought we might try someplace else. I took him to St. Mary’s Hospital. He became a supervisor.

When Paul and his father had saved enough money, they paid for tickets and brought his mother and his sisters, Serafina and Rosalia, to St. Louis.

When sister Rosa and her husband, Agostino Gabriele, came to St. Louis with their children a year later, Paul found Agostino a job baking bread in a bakery.

While in St. Louis, Serafina became engaged to Giovanni Gabriele, who was in Palermo. In 1963, Paul took her to New York and put her on a ship back to Italy, where she married Giovanni. When they came back to St. Louis, Paul found Giovanni a job at a factory in the engineering department.

I tried to take care of the family. Tried to protect them. Make them happy. And then there was me.

Paul wasn't happy working at Nathan Tureen's barrel factory. So he took a course at Bailey Technical School and began working in a garage Tureen owned, fixing cars and trucks for the factory. But he wasn't happy there either. That's when he met Andreino DeSantis, a fellow Italian, who worked at Tony's restaurant.

So, this gentleman, he’s a Roman — a real Roman. We became friends. I told him, "I have a brother-in-law. In the Merchant Marine he was a cook. Now he’s a baker; he makes bread." He said, "I can get a job for him at Tony’s restaurant."

So, Agostino got a job over there. And I was interested in that kind of job too. So, I went over there and got a job. Vince Bommarito, he was a great guy. He was the best teacher I have had in my life.

Paul worked at Tony's as a waiter. He got his brothers-in-law, Giovanni Gabriele and John Mineo, jobs at Tony's as waiters too. Later, he would get his sister Concetta's husband, Francesco Sanfilippo, a job there.

Tony's Waitstaff, 1966
1-Paul Manno, 2-Giovanni Gabriele, 3-John Mineo

At this stage I was 20. I was working at Tony’s restaurant and the factory, because I was afraid to leave my father. He was older. He couldn’t drive. He couldn’t speak very good English. So, I was working two jobs for one year. It was really tough.

Paul was still living at home with his parents.

I was going out and my father would give me trouble when I came home. My mother wouldn’t go to sleep because she waited for me at night.

And now, my father wants me to go to Italy and search for a girl. So I told Vince I needed to go to Italy for three months. Before that, I quit the factory and Mr. Tureen wasn’t too happy. He said he wanted to make me a foreman, but I turned it down.

In Italy, Paul stayed at his sister Concetta's home in Palermo, with her husband Francesco Sanfilippo and their three children.

I was young, so I started going around with friends — school friends that I knew. And I found a girl, but it wasn’t the girl that my father would approve. It was a woman who was seven years older than me. She was a midwife. That was OK for me to have a good time — rent a car and go all over Palermo. I had a lot of fun.

Before he left St. Louis for Italy, a woman who lived on the Hill had asked Paul to deliver a package to her sister who lived in Ragusa, 150 miles south of Palermo. As his three month stay in Italy was coming to an end, Paul remembered he needed to deliver the package.

So I drove to Ragusa, which I had never been to. I had the address. I knocked on the door — boom, boom — and my wife opened up! When I saw her, I swear to god, I said, "Eww, this is for me! My father would be happy." They were nice people. They invited me for dinner.

Paul's wife-to-be was Concetta DiNatale. When he returned to St. Louis, he courted her on the telephone and convinced her to come to St. Louis, where she stayed with her aunt and uncle. Shortly thereafter, they were engaged. A year later, they were married on the Hill at St. Ambrose Church.

St. Ambrose Church, 1965
(L to R) Giovanni Gabriele, Serafina Gabriele, Benedetto Buzzetta, Rosalia Buzzetta, Francesco Paolo Manno, Concetta Manno, Paul Manno, Elena Manno, Anna Mineo, John Mineo, Rosa Gabriele, Agostino Gabriele

Paul was still working as a waiter for Vince Bommarito at Tony's. He lived with Concetta in a home he had built in Cool Valley. His parents and his siblings would also build homes on the same street, which they affectionately called Palermo Lane.

I was making good money. I had the first color TV. I had a custom made home. And then everybody started building the same house like mine on Evans Lane. My father, my mother, and down the road, everyone.

I was happy. I liked the job. In the beginning, I was real shy. Restaurants were not my thing, even though my father's grandmother had a restaurant. My father was a great talent with Italian cuisine. He always cooked at home when we were alone, without my mother, in the beginning.

I was scared approaching people. Vince said, don’t worry about it. You’ve got to face them like a prostitute. Through him, I got the courage to go to a table and start being myself. I started making salads tableside, singing "O sole mio" and stuff like that. People kind of liked it.

I became one of the top representatives at Tony’s restaurant — dining room director. In those days, I helped Vince and Tony conquer the five-star restaurants.

Paul's brothers-in-law weren't as content. In 1967, Agostino Gabriele and John Mineo opened their own restaurant. In 1973, when they moved on to other ventures, Giovanni Gabriele left Tony's and took over the space. Paul considered joining him, but decided to stay where he was.

I was happy with Tony’s in those days. I was making good money. So I didn’t have the desire. I didn’t have any children at that point. So I stayed there for — I think it was fourteen years. I was one of the best over there.

John Mineo had opened a successful restaurant in West County. He needed more help and he asked Paul to join him.

When John Mineo progressed, he said, why don’t you come work with me. You can be my right hand in the dining room. I thought about it. The idea was good, so I said OK.

He treated me good, but I didn’t progress. I was always worried about the family all the time, but the others were the ones who were elevating themselves. It’s OK.

I was with John Mineo at least 10 years. He was a good guy. But he had a good man working for him. I made him look good.

In 1979, Paul and John Mineo partnered with Benedetto Buzzetta to open a restaurant at 12240 Manchester in the Colonnade Center which they called The Brother-in-Laws. But the restaurant wasn't large enough for three families. Buzzetta bought out his two brothers-in-law and ran the restaurant with his wife, Rosalia.

(front) Paul Jr. & Elena Manno (back) Francesco Paolo, Elena, Concetta & Paul Manno, 1982

In March of 1987, Paul partnered with John Mineo in a downtown restaurant. They opened John Mineo II & Paul's on the ground floor of the new St. Louis Centre.

Initially, Mineo's son, John Jr., was part of the mix, but after a year or so, Paul ran the restaurant with his wife, Concetta.

John Jr. was helping me for a while, but it didn’t work out. He was too young and he had different ideas.

The restaurant's main dining room was surrounded by white columns, reminiscent of a rotunda. There were pink walls with blue borders, ornate crystal chandeliers from Italy, patterned carpeting, marble floors and a statue of an unidentified goddess.

John Mineo II & Paul's Dining Room

Paul described his menu as continental, with a leaning toward Italian. Entrees included chicken, veal, seafood, beef and pasta. The menu changed frequently. All of the recipes originated in Sicily.

Concetta prepared the sauces and supervised the kitchen. The Manno children, Paul Jr. (age 14) and Elena (age 12), helped in the restaurant on weekends.


John Mineo II & Paul's Menu (click image to enlarge)	Paul Manno & Guests

Paul Manno and John Mineo closed their downtown restaurant at the end of 1991.

Things downtown didn’t go very well. I was running the place with my wife. My kids were in school. She was going back and forth, and she was cooking. I was taking care of my two kids too. And downtown was tough, even though we had a beautiful restaurant. John Mineo completely disappeared from there. I ran that for five years. After a while, the rent was getting too much, so we started thinking about moving on.

They moved on to St. Charles. In the spring of 1992, Ciao Italian Restaurant opened at 1050 Park Place.

Ciao offered gourmet-style cooking at family-style prices. Guests could order from the menu or Paul would custom design their dinner.

Paul welcomed guests and ran the dining room, and Concetta headed the kitchen. Paul Jr. started at Ciao as head waiter and then worked for a time in the kitchen, cooking side by side with his mother.


Ciao Lunch Menu (click image to enlarge)	Paul and Concetta Manno

John Mineo didn't have a presence at Ciao; it was basically Paul and Concetta's restaurant.

He had too much to do at his place. He was in Chesterfield. So it was practically all mine. He never made a penny. I didn’t make it either because the business was terrible. And the landlord always crying for more money.

In 1994, Paul heard that Massa's restaurant in the Forum Shopping Center at Olive and Woodsmill was for sale.

The guy who was bringing in the soap for the dishwasher in St. Charles said, why don’t you see this place in Chesterfield. It’s a pizza place.

My son was going to college, and I said, maybe I can open and put my son in charge of that. So I bought the place. It was only eight-tenths of a mile from my house.

I opened it up and it was small — very, very small. Maybe ten tables. No kitchen. There was a pizza oven, just for making pizza.

My name was well known. I started having people waiting outside. My wife was commuting from Ciao restaurant in St. Charles to Paul . . . we had to choose a name. So what were we going to choose? We called it Paul Manno’s Cafe.

Paul Manno’s Cafe – 75 Forum Shopping Center

Two years later, Paul closed Ciao. He expanded Paul Manno's Cafe twice, taking over spaces on either side. His restaurant has thrived for almost thirty years and it's still thriving.

Paul Manno and Paul Manno Jr.

So this is my story. I'm retired. I’m 82 years old. But I still go in; it’s my life. People want to take pictures with me. I’m the one who started it. But my son, he does a wonderful job. We are very loved by the people.

Paul Manno, June 28, 2022

La Famiglia Manno

Part Three: Rosa & Agostino