Cassani's Mario "Mike" Cassani was born in St. Louis in 1910. His parents had immigrated to the United States from Italy. Mike Cassani married Ann Martarona on September 25, 1937. Their son Dennis was born in 1941 and their daughter Carolyn in 1943.
Cassani had started working as a machine
operator at McQuay-Norris, a manufacturer of piston rings, as early
as 1930. While still at McQuay-Norris in the mid 1940s, he lost a
portion of his right index finger. This prompted a
career change.
The dwelling at 5100 Daggett, at the southwest corner of Daggett and Hereford, was used as a tavern as early as 1910. Charles Galli was the longtime proprietor, with his family living above at 5100A. As late as 1937, Galli's son Fred served up liquor at the address. And by 1946, Mario Marnati, who listed his occupation as a bartender in 1944, lived above and may have operated the tavern below. On April 1, 1947, Mike Cassani came home and told his wife Ann he had bought the tavern at 5100 Daggett. She thought it an April Fool's joke, but he convinced her otherwise and before long, the Cassani family were residents of 5100A. Mike Cassani gave his new tavern his family name. It was sometimes referred to as Cassani's Cafe and sometimes simply Cassani's. It may have offered drinks and little else when it first opened in 1947. But in April of 1948, Ann Cassani's nephews, Cyril and Lawrence Tornetto, turned Cassani's into a barbecue restaurant.
Twenty-one year-old Cyril and eighteen year-old
Lawrence Tornetto had approached their aunt and uncle about
operating a barbecue stand at Cassani's. A detached structure adjacent to the main building housed the barbecue pit.
By July of 1949, Cassani's Bar-B-Q was tempting "hungry folks with honest-to-goodness Italian barbecued chicken, frog legs and ribs." The Tornetto brothers relinquished their barbecue business in 1950. According to Lawrence, "We couldn't make enough money because we didn't own the business, just the Bar-B-Q business and not the bar and restaurant."
Cyril Tornetto died tragically in 1963 at the
age of 36. Lawrence Tornetto was awarded the Purple Heart for
service in the Korean War and would continue barbecuing for many
years.
Early on, Cassani's had tables set up for card games. There were spittoons by each table, as well as at the bar. Later, booths and tables were added, as well as a juke box and a pinball machine. Above the door leading into the kitchen was a shelf which held a small TV. At the end of the bar was a walk-in cooler.
The yard on the side of the building was
enclosed with a six-foot white wooden fence, with lights atop each
post. The ground was covered with
pecan shells; there was no grass. This area was dubbed "the garden"
for outdoor dining and barbecue patrons.
At some point, Ann Cassani and Annie Bartoni, who lived up the street at 5125 Daggett, started preparing lunch for the tavern's patrons. They offered a "Merchants Lunch" – the first was a pork chop plate which, according to Dennis Cassani, sold only one order. Eventually, lunch opened up cafeteria-style, frequented by workers at nearby factories along Daggett and Hereford.
Mike Cassani was the bartender. Men
from the neighborhood tended bar as well. One of the longest tenured was Vince Notte.
When the Tornetto brothers departed, Ann’s brother, John Martarona, took over at the barbecue pit. John "The Barbecue Man" worked on Fridays and Saturdays, tantalizing Cassani's customers for over 20 years with his scrumptious St. Louis-style ribs, beef sandwiches and Italian hamburgers. After Saturday mass at St. Ambrose, the scent of Martarona's barbecue attracted hungry church goers. They would form a line at the takeout window of the barbecue pit which stretched nearly half a block.
Martarona would double wrap to go orders with
white butcher paper and then newspaper. This insulated the food and
kept it warm until his customers could get it home.
The barbecue sauce and the cole slaw which
accompanied sandwiches were homemade, and both were legendary. Cassani family guarded recipes, they were never revealed to the
Tornetto brothers or John Martarona. Both were prepared in advance,
before working hours. A very large pot of sauce was placed on the pit
grate where it would cook during selling hours over the hickory wood
fire.
In the mid 1950s, Ann Cassani and Annie Bartoni retired from the kitchen and Lou Aiazzi was brought in as cook. He would leave to open Rigazzi's in 1957 with partner John Riganti. Mike Bolasina was hired to replace Aiazzi. Bolasina was an expert at Italian comfort food, such as tripe and tongue. Large crowds would gather at lunch time and form a line at the steam table to partake of his delicacies. Cassani's was remodeled in 1959. The corner entrance was moved to the center of the building, with a foyer entry and two new windows on either side of the door. The side yard fencing was removed and the area blacktopped for parking. Out went the booths, juke box and pinball machine, and in came more tables and chairs to support increased business. A new bar was installed and a drop ceiling was added, along with new lighting fixtures. The walk-in cooler was replaced by two restrooms, and the basement was remodeled into a rathskeller, which was used for overflow at lunch and private parties.
With the the remodeling came evening dining,
Monday through Saturday. Relatives and neighborhood women served as
waitresses. Menu items included a variety of Italian dishes, along
with Americanized entrees.
On December 10, 1962 Mike Cassani died suddenly at the age of 52. Ann Cassani continued operating the restaurant until 1966, when she sold the building and business to John and Marie Galimberti. Ann's brother John continued his magic at the barbecue pit for the Galimbertis. However, the Galimbetis did not acquire the original barbecue sauce and cole slaw recipes – they remained with the Cassani family.
The Galimbertis continued to call their
restaurant Cassani's until at least July of 1975. But by February of
1977, they had changed the name to Galimberti's.
Ann Cassani died on July 5, 1986 at the age of
75. Neither Dennis nor Carolyn Cassani remained in the restaurant
business. However, they continue to make their legendary
barbecue sauce and slaw.
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