Snappy Service Cafe'

100 years ago this fall,  my husband’s family was established in America. Coming from Northern Italy, Big Nonna arrived with her husband, two daughters and her newborn son (also my husband’s Grandpa) Tony. Grandpa Tony was not yet 3 months old when they arrived on December 12, 1909. That was the day the ship,  ”La Lorraine” deposited the small family at Ellis Island.  They were headed to Bingham Canyon, Utah; a mining community near Salt Lake City where many Italian immigrants lived.

It was here that Big Nonna began operating a boarding house. She was a pretty tough woman -  her husband died in the early 1930′s and she eventually remarried one of her boarders, but still ran the boarding house. She cooked, cleaned and worked hard every day of her life. She made wine, which she stored in the basement and she cooked huge family dinners. She died before I met my husband’s family, but stories of her are still recounted often; especially when we all gather for a special Italian meal or event. It’s almost as if I had met her; she is in my thoughts, too.

Every year around Columbus Day, our family participates in the “Great Italian Festival,” hosted in Downtown Reno by the Eldorado Casino. Families are invited to participate, based on authentic recipes for spaghetti sauce, and a great many regions in Italy are represented. Both Saturday and Sunday, families prepare the sauce their grandparents and great-grandparents made for their own families. Gallons and gallons of sauce simmers all morning; each pot as different as each name hanging above the booths. White sauce, pesto sauce, red sauce, chicken, pork, beef, mushroom, garlic, onions, herbs … the smells are incredible. Just like home, for so many people.

We, of course, make Big Nonna’s sauce. Each one of us has added our own touches to it over the years, but it has stayed basically the same. Hers was a red sauce, with ground beef and sausage. Spices, herbs, wine, and memories. Think of the spaghetti sauce you’ve loved over the years — your grandmother’s sauce — that’s how much we love ours.

While we’re cooking our gallons of sauce, we are surrounded by photos of Grandpa Tony, Big Nonna and their family. Strangers stop by our booth to look at the photos, often commenting on how they have photos at home, just like those. We spend hours talking with people who remember their own Nonnas in the kitchen.

When the sauce is ready to serve, lines of people front every booth and we ladle out our sauce to all who ask – until every drop is wiped from the pot with the last chunk of bread. People are happy, then, just like when Big Nonna served her family and boarders. Some even whisper our secret ingredients to us softly, because they can taste them in the sauce and that’s just how it’s made in Piemonte! It does always surprise us, but it helps us remember how connected we are to where Grandpa Tony was born.

Our kids look forward to this day, as much as we do; big Nonna’s great-great grandchildren. They bring girlfriends, boyfriends and just plain friends to spend the days with us. Everyone is Italian on Columbus Day! They grape-stomp, dress-up and they boys intentionally grow “Italian” mustaches just for this weekend! Family comes from Utah and California to help in the booth and we all revel  in the shared memories and hear the stories of how it was when Big Nonna was alive. Pretty sure that Grandpa Tony would have loved this weekend, as much as we all do!

So, it’s been 100 years and counting…counting the new friends and family members and remembering the old! Here’s to you, Big Nonna and 100 more years to celebrate … Happy Columbus Day!!!