Lost Tables: Tony's

they

Tony's

Anthony Bommarito was born in St. Louis on October 12, 1904. At age 11, he was driving a bakery wagon belonging to his father, Vincenzo Bommarito, who had immigrated from Italy in 1900. The wagon collided with an automobile, resulting in the arrest of his father.

In 1930, Bommarito married Lucille Grace Randazzo, whose father was president of the Randazzo Macaroni Company. The Bommaritos had four children — Vincent was born in 1930, Anthony ("Tony") in 1932, Delores in 1935 and Joann in 1938.

The St. Louis City Directories of 1932 and 1933 list Bommarito's occupation as a baker. The 28-year-old Bommarito may have been working at his father's bakery at 717 Carr.

From 1934 to 1936, Bommarito was associated with the Hodges Chili Parlor at 1114 Franklin. No place of employment was listed on his 1942 draft registration card. The 1944 St. Louis City Directory lists Bommarito as the manager of Victory Recreation Parlor, a pool hall.

And by December 28, 1946, Anthony Bommarito was advertising for help at Tony's Spaghetti House on 417 Delmar, a space that had been the Triangle Grill for many years.

Anthony Bommarito Sr.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Dec 29, 1946

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Dec 30, 1946

In 1920, the Meletio Sea Food Company moved into the space at 822-826 North Broadway. They remained there until 1945, when the company purchased a building on Franklin Avenue, moving their offices and the bulk of their business activities to that location. They continued to occupy the building on North Broadway as warehouse space.

By June 1, 1947, the four-story brick building at 822-826 North Broadway had been sold to John J. Morley. At the time, the property was unoccupied, the Meletio Sea Food Company having vacated the space.

Meletio's, 822-826 North Broadway, Jun 13, 1946

By June 11, 1947, Anthony Bommarito had moved his restaurant from 417 Delmar into the space at 826 North Broadway, advertising it first as "Tony's" and later as "Tony's Spaghetti House."

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Jun 11, 1947

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Sept 21, 1947

Tony's Spaghetti House was located at the south end of Produce Row, a bustling, noisy neighborhood, teeming with produce jobbers and push carts. Bommarito's restaurant was open for breakfast and lunch, mainly to accommodate these workers.

Produce Row

On April 28, 1948, Anthony Bommarito died of complications from a ruptured appendix. Lucille Bommarito planned to close her husband's restaurant, advertising it for sale in the January 30, 1949 St. Louis Post-Dispatch. But her sons, Vince and Tony, convinced her to keep it open; it was the family's only source of income.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Jan 30, 1949

When their father died, Vince Bommarito was a junior at St. Louis University High School and Tony was a sophomore. The story of how the two brothers took over Tony's Spaghetti House and built it into one of the top restaurants in the country has been told many times throughout the years, usually from the words and perspective of the elder Bommarito brother.

In his November 28,1965 St. Louis Post-Dispatch article, William Woo accurately depicted the two brothers' personae.

Vince, who is dressed more conservatively, fits the restaurant’s image better; his gestures are more incisive, his tone heartier. Tony, who is content at first to let his brother carry the conversation, slouches in the leather chair, smiles boyishly and looks shy.

Vince Bommarito died in 2019. This telling of the Bommarito brothers' story is from the words and perspective of 91-year-old Tony Bommarito.

Vince (L) and Tony Bommarito in North Broadway Office, 1965

In 1949, my brother graduated from high school and went right to work at Tony's restaurant. I graduated the year later, 1950, and followed suit. I went to work at Tony's restaurant to help my brother.

I remember early, very early, he said after a couple of weeks, there's a bakery up on 13th and Cass, which was on my way down to work in the morning. He said, I want you to stop there. They're going to make some Danish rolls for us and we're going to serve Danish rolls in the morning instead of those glazed donuts. He said, we got to change that a little bit.

Looking back, I remember my brother at that time, he said, we want to do things a little different. We have to do things different and a little better. Different and better.

Sixty years of that thought stayed with that company. We never copied. We were aware of what other people were doing, but we never did copy anything. We just tried to do things a little different and a little better.


Vince Bommarito, 1949	Tony Bommarito, 1950

Vince Bommarito, 1949

When Vince and Tony took over their father's restaurant, it was doing a decent lunch business.

Downtown at this time was a busy, busy market. The streets were buzzing. The dining room on the first floor of the Statler Hotel, in the daytime, was just packed with people. Gentlemen having lunch, big silver cart with the big dome on it, slicing sandwiches, the chef rolling it around the dining room, people having cocktails and whatever. It was a very sophisticated place for lunch.

If you'd go a couple of blocks east of there, you would run into the MAC, the Missouri Athletic Club. And Missouri Athletic Club was the same way. You couldn't get in the bar. They were three deep at the bar. The first floor was packed. The upstairs dining room was packed every day for lunch.

Couple more doors south of there, they had the Noonday Club. Noonday Club was busy, packed for lunch. Gentlemen all going there.

Many cafeterias downtown, Hullings, Pope's Cafeteria, Forum Cafeteria. They were all busy.

Why do I bring this up? Because it struck a bell. There was something that lit up in our minds that we could do better for lunch. We could do better lunch.

Vince and Tony had inherited their father's staff, including the "gentleman in the kitchen." They talked with him about changing the lunch menu.

We changed the menu to upgrade the lunch, because we said we should be packed here for lunch. We wanted to build up that lunch business, because all these other places were busy for lunch.

Well, it did get busier. We had really started to grow. From 1950 to 1953, the breakfast was good and lunch was good.

In 1953, Tony was drafted into the Army. That's where he learned to cook.

So in 1953, I had to leave. My brother worked from '53 until I got out of the service in 1955. He worked pretty much solo along with one real close friend of his that was there helping him all the time.

When I was in the service, I worked in the kitchen. So all of a sudden I was supposed to know everything about cooking. All I knew was how to peel potatoes and onions, and maybe cook some pancakes. But I wasn't what you'd call a cook. But anyway, I had the experience. I knew how to turn on the stove and turn it off.

So I was in the kitchen when I got back, I kind of worked the dining room, but I stuck my nose in the kitchen and learned a little here and a little there along the way.

Tony's Kitchen, 826 North Broadway, 1958

Vince and Tony enlarged and remodeled their restaurant on a regular basis throughout the 1950s. They added another dining room in the rear of the building to handle the overflow crowd and private parties. The kitchen was enlarged and new restrooms were installed. They put red-checkered cloths on the tables, which were lighted with candles. Dozens of autographed celebrity photographs adorned the walls.

Much of the work they did themselves. When they were short of cash they borrowed money for improvements, paid off the loan and then went through the cycle again with more improvements.

Tony's Dining Room, 826 North Broadway, 1956

Tony's Bar and Balcony, 826 North Broadway, 1956

You know, we took down the Falstaff sign — took down the beer sign out in front. All of a sudden, it was Tony's Spaghetti and Steak House. Steak House, everybody said, yeah.

So we were serving steaks at night now. Instead of baked potato, we'd give them a side of spaghetti. Steak and potato? No, steak and pasta. So we had to be a little different. Couldn't do the same thing everybody else was doing. They could go to the Lennox Rathskeller or they could go somewhere else. We knew what everybody did, but we wanted to do something different and we did.

After Tony returned from the service in 1955, he and Vince decided to close for breakfast and concentrate on lunch and dinner. They got busy for lunch and they got busy for dinner. Then in 1958, they closed for lunch and were open only for dinner.

We eventually had to close for lunch, because lunch was busy. We didn't hardly have time to prepare the food for dinner, and we were working late, my brother and I both, so we were working long hours. So we closed lunch and focused on dinner.

The place was busy, busy, busy from 5 o'clock to 11 o'clock at night. You couldn't get in, you couldn't get in. It was waiting and waiting.


1950s Tony's Menu (click image to enlarge)

In 1961, having purchased all the property on the corner, the two brothers razed four buildings and all but the first floor of a fifth. A parking area was created, and the remaining first floor of the fifth building was turned into an attractive walnut-and-leather waiting room where customers could have a cocktail before dinner. A coat of brown paint, which through wear took on a plum-colored tone, was applied to the exterior.

Tony's, 826 North Broadway, 1965

The service at Tony's was unsurpassed, in part due to the quality of the individuals hired and in part due to their training. This was particularly true in the 1960s.

I was in the kitchen at that time; I no longer went out in the dining room. I was working the line along with a great crew, so the food was good. The food was always good.

We had hired a chef at that point, a young Italian guy that was working on the Hill. He came down and came to work for us — Rico Lonati. He ended up working for us for, I don't know, 25 years. He was absolutely very important to our company.

But we were blessed. We had key people all the time. But the crew that worked for us in the '60s probably was the most impressive. I'd say those ten years did more for the restaurant industry in the city of St. Louis than any other era that I could remember.

The people that worked there, names like Dominic Galati and Paul Manno and Giovanni and Mineo and Andreino DeSantis. All these young guys running around. And they worked and they worked and they were happy and they were making money and they were good.

All of those people at one point or another left and went on and opened up their own place. And I think today how happy and how proud we were to see how many of these people went on to be successful.

Tony's Waitstaff, 1966
1-Kim Tucci, 2-Ray Schif, 3-Paul Manno, 4-Joe Grasso, 5-Sam Cavato, 6-Hans Pich, 7-Stefan Dima, 8-John Mineo, 9-Giovanni Gabriele, 10-Leonidas Sotiropolis

And in that mix of guys, I remember we hired a gentleman, his name was Anton Leopold. Anton worked over at the Mayfair Hotel in the dining room. He was an older guy and he came to us and said he wanted the job. Well, we were a bunch of young guys, and this guy was old. He might not have been that old; we thought he was old, you know. So anyway, we hired him.

Well, when Anton came in,he put the finishing touches on the crew. He was soft-spoken. We would put a plate down — bang. He put the plate down softly. He would remove the plate properly. He'd pour the water properly. And all of a sudden, we're looking at him and we're saying, wow.

This was another phase of the business. Sure, the food was good. Sure, everybody was happy. But he had put some elegance on us, on Tony's restaurant, and helped us a great deal to put us in that next level. Not so sophisticated that we ever ran anybody out. We were always very sensitive to that. But we just kept raising it up a little bit each time, and he was very instrumental.


1960s Tony's Menu (click image to enlarge)

The Equitable Building at Market and South Broadway was completed in 1971.

Ray Wittcoff and Gyo Obata were building this new building down the other end of the city, down by Market Street. They wanted us to put another restaurant down there.

Well, my brother and I, we talked. We were interested because my brother was married and he had five children and there was only so much, as busy as we were, that the business could make.

We said, maybe we will open one. We'd open a place that was completely different. Better different? I don't know, but just different.

So we opened up Anthony's Restaurant, and I was going to manage Anthony's. My brother stayed at Tony's, and his sons worked with him. And I opened Anthony's Restaurant to run it a little different.

Anthony's opened in the Equitable Building in 1972, located off the lobby of the Market Street entrance.

410 Market Street Entrance to Equitable Building

So we opened up, it was a very elegant place, very contemporary. Right now, as I speak, I think probably one of the best designed restaurants that I had been in.

We didn't have any small tables in the restaurant, no little two tops in the corner. Everything was large tables. And there was light over each table, which meant that every table was private. That's what that does. Everybody's eyes goes towards the light, and that kept the conversation at the table. So I thought the privacy from the lighting was very, very good.

And then there were little glass petitions around the room, because there's a comfort level people get from being near something. Every table, you were near a wall or you were near a piece of glass. So you had a little warmth, but at the same time, you didn't feel like you were in a closet or in a private room.

So with the privacy, with the lighting, everything, I thought the room was a very quiet, special room for people. Some liked it, some didn't like it.

I always thought the food was good. A negative was that many people knew that I was in the kitchen at Tony's, and they had come in Anthony's and they'd want some pasta or they wanted some of the things they had at the other restaurant.

We absolutely did not do that. You know, not to be stubborn, but we didn't want to be in competition with one another. It wasn't the purpose of the restaurant. The restaurant was there, first of all, to be different from the other restaurant.

From 1972 to 1991, Anthony's and Tony's operated independently, under the same corporate umbrella. Tony spent all of his time running Anthony's and Vince ran Tony's with his sons, Anthony, Vince Jr. and James. Vince Jr. would graduate from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York.


1970 Tony's Menu (click image to enlarge)	(L to R) James, Vince Jr., Vince Sr. Tony's Kitchen, 1986

After the St. Louis Cardinals football team moved to Phoenix in 1988, talks surfaced about a new dome stadium in downtown St. Louis.

Rumors started floating that they were going to build a dome downtown. Obviously, we were excited about building the dome downtown. That was going to be great. But we didn't think it would be built on top of Tony's restaurant.

But that's where it was. They were going to tear down Tony's restaurant. My brother had never worked any place else in his life except there. That's the only thing he had ever done. He had worked at Tony's restaurant from the minute he got out of high school 'till that day.

He wasn't really excited about moving, but he said, well, I don't have much choice. They didn't give you much choice, by the way.

So he looked around downtown. He looked at a lot of places, you know, but could not find something that would work. So he struggled and he struggled.

Construction of Dome Stadium, Downtown St. Louis

In 1991, Tony Bommarito announced he was closing Anthony's. He said the decision to shut down his restaurant had been rooted in his desire to spend more time with his family. Vince Bommarito discounted reports that he intended to move Tony's to the Anthony's space.

That was the story printed in the newspapers and broadcast on the airways. But the true story is that Tony Bommarito sacrificed his restaurant for his big brother.

I finally came to the conclusion. I had a long-term lease at the Equitable Building. I said, well, why don't you just take over Anthony's and change the name? You take it over and I'll do something different.

So that's what happened. My brother, along with his sons, moved Tony's from down the street. They moved about 12 blocks south and took over the Anthony's space, remodeled it, kept some of the atmosphere of the old and added some of the new and mixed it in. And he was very successful.

So Tony's opened up in the old Anthony's space in 1992. And I was out there, the guy that was doing all of these things, I didn't have anything to do.

Tony Bommarito didn't stay without anything to do for long. He founded A. Bommarito Wines, a wholesale wine distributor at 2827 South Brentwood.

A. Bommarito Wines, 2827 South Brentwood

Tony's sold out for its closing night on May 23, 1991 at its North Brentwood location. The menu had changed over the years, with more fish and lighter sauces. Waiters didn't hover as much as they used to. But Vince himself remained the consummate host, stopping at tables to make suggestions and take orders.

Vince Oversees Tony's Dining Room, 1984

Tony's reopened in the Equitable Building on June 2, 1991. The dining rooms were now all on one level. The front dining room used Anthony's smoked glass as a wall between dining room and wine storage. The main dining room was very large and rather austere. A much smaller waiting room was off the front lobby.

While location and decor had changed, food and service did not. In 1992, Tony's received Mobil Travel Guide's coveted five-star award for restaurants for the 18th consecutive year.

Vince and his sons were still fixtures at Tony's. James and Anthony welcomed guests at the door. Vince Jr. would become the restaurant's executive chef.

Tony's Waiting Room, 410 Market Street

Tony's Main Dining Room, 410 Market Street

The Bommaritos (from left), Vince Sr., Anthony, Vince Jr., James, 1995

But the stability that Tony's had experienced for over 40 years in its North Broadway space didn't follow the restaurant to South Broadway.

Tony's was still considered the best restaurant in St. Louis. But as restaurant critic Joe Pollack said in his September 28, 1995 St. Louis Post-Dispatch review, "the downtown landmark still leads, but others can now be talked about in the same breath, and it's not that Tony's has faltered, or even stood still, but the others have grown."

The following year, after 22 years of receiving Mobil's five-star award, Tony's had lost a star — and a lot of pride.

As the climate began to change in downtown St. Louis, there were constant reports of Tony's moving to the County. In 2008, Vince talked with Lester Miller about leasing the shuttered Busch's Grove. In 2011, Tony's was again rumored moving into the Busch's Grove space. There were also reports that the restaurant was moving to the refurbished Cheshire Inn and to the new Centene Plaza in Clayton.

In May of 2018, Vince Bommarito Jr. left his position as Tony's executive chef to become the chief culinary officer for Butler's Pantry. His father's comments to the media were measured.

The Bommarito family, including my sons Anthony and James, and daughter Lucy, will be at my side as we continue to operate our fine-dining landmark, Tony’s. We will continue to provide each and every guest with the same exquisite cuisine and unparalleled service that we are known for, and look forward to the next 70 years!

Vince Bommarito Jr.

Vince Bommarito Sr. died on the morning of April 2, 2019 at the age of 88.

My brother passed away in 2019. Very, very hard. I worked with him my whole life. We were very close. We were different. We weren't the same. He had his little personality. I had mine.

Vince Bommarito Sr. in his office at Tony's

After his father's passing, James was the only Bommarito left at Tony's restaurant. It didn't take him long to move away from the downtown space. On April 28, 2020, the Clayton Board of Aldermen approved a conditional use permit for Tony's to occupy 7,890 square feet on the first and second floors of the Centene Plaza C building, located on the southeast corner of Hanley and Carondelet Plaza in Clayton. The restaurant moved into the space in March of the following year

Tony's Restaurant in Clayton

Tony's Dining Room in Clayton

James Bommarito at Tony's in Clayton

And it ended up things got a little quiet downtown, and they recently moved to the Clayton area. James is the only one involved in the restaurant. He is the manager and owner of the Tony's Restaurant in Clayton.

I think they're doing fine, and I'm excited to see the name out. You can't see the name out and work that long and not have some feeling for it.

Tony's Lobster Albanello

Tony's Ice Cream Pie

But Tony's stay in Clayton was relatively short lived. After almost 80 years in business, James Bommarito closed his restaurant in February of 2025, saying, "I've been doing this for a long while. Have worked over 3,000 Friday and Saturday nights in a row. Ready for a different direction." Tony's bittersweet last day of service was on Valentine's Day.

Anthony "Tony" Bommarito, Sept 24, 2024

You can hear more about Tony's in the Lost Tables Podcast Series.