Lost Tables: St. Louis

La Famiglia Manno

Part Eight: St. Louis

Beginning in 1967, with the opening of Agostino's on the Hill, La Famiglia Manno spawned 34 restaurants in the Greater St. Louis area. At the start of 2024, only five remained.

Carmelo Gabriele's Il Bel Lago in Creve Coeur was one of those five.

Unfortunately for us, we’re dwindling. It gets a little harder as you get a little older. This is really a young man’s sport. Now my back is out, knee, shoulder. Fortunately for us, we’re blessed with such a good business, but it’s a long day. We get here at 8:30 and we work all day.

The only sad thing is that I don’t have any of my boys with me. Four boys and none of them want anything to do with this. I think they saw the sacrifice. Today’s kids, they want more in life.

I feel very fortunate, we have a great living. But you actually see the endgame now. I couldn’t do it like my father till 75. My father had a work ethic and this mentality, it was incredible. My father’s generation, they believed that when you stopped working, you die. But I can’t see at 75 still doing this.

I still love what I do. It’s difficult but I still live and breathe my restaurant. It's still a high for me at 5:00 when it's show time.

Carmelo Gabriele

John Mineo Jr. still runs John Mineo's Italian Restaurant at a high level, but he knows things have changed.

My cousins and I can never be what our parents were. They’re no cousins that can handle it, that many hours, and put in the love that you have to.

I can’t do what my dad did. Are you kidding me? My dad closed every night. Ask Carmelo and all my other relatives. They don’t close every night.

My Uncle Benny, he’s still on his walker working. My Aunt Rosa, she found out I needed help — she’s 94 years old — and she wanted to work the line. I said, "You can’t do that. I can’t let you. It’s like a steam room in here."

We, as a new generation, we just don’t have it. Maybe we were spoiled. But I want to go home at night.

John Mineo Jr.

After retiring from the restaurant business, Joe Sanfilippo now works in sales at Glendale Chrysler Jeep.

Thirty years in, I wasn’t tired. I was tired of the environment.

My phone’s ringing. I get a text. I’m not in today. I can’t make it. What? It’s New Year’s Eve! Are you kidding me? It’s Christmas, it’s Valentine’s, whatever.

Never was my life in my own hands. I was always dependent. I was just so tired of being dependent on everyone other than myself.

I looked at my mom — at this point my mom was baking bread at 84 or 85 or 86. My Aunt Lia, 80 years old, still cooking. My Aunt Rosa, 93, still cooking. Do I want to be stuck in a kitchen — Yes, sir! Yes, ma’am! — and then having to eat my pride with my employees because I can never say . . .

I told my family, I’m out. I’m going to change careers.

My dad at 62 was done. He was 61 when he said, no more, no more. Well, I got out at 54.

Joe Sanfilippo

La Famiglia Manno had their roots in Palermo, on the Italian island of Sicily. In 1946, their patriarch would stow away on a ship and make his way to St. Louis. His six children and their spouses would follow and plunge into the restaurant business. Their life was hard, but there was always opportunity and hope. And always family.

Concetta Sanfilippo, Paul Manno, Rosa Gabriele (front)
Fina Gabriele, Lia Buzzetta, Anna Mineo (back)

La Famiglia Manno