Food & Restaurants

October 25, 2018

As regards Italian and Mediterranean cuisine, the Los Angeles restaurant scene has undergone, in the last two decades, nothing short of a revolution. The number of Italian restaurants has mushroomed, especially in the past five years, and the influence of Italian cuisine on California cuisine, in general, has been so profound that some foods have lost their Italian uniqueness to enter mainstream food habits. We are undergoing presently an extreme case of multiplication, resulting in complex restaurant geneaologies: as Italian waiters are playing musical chairs, chefs leave restaurants to open their own (e.g., Gino Angelini, chef who launched Vincenti, and is now owner of Angelini Osteria; the chef behind Angelini Osteria, opens his own La Terza, etc.), and restaurateur dynasties appear. A successful restaurant spawns a more casual locale, wine bars, or cafès, thereby providing a full line of eating establishments under one banner (e.g., Celestino Drago and the Drago restaurant dynasty in the area, See: NOTABLE CHEFS; Locanda Veneta opens Café Veneto, and so forth). Italian food is strong and shows no sign of waning (search the Los Angeles Times database with keyword “Italian” and “California” and more than 3/4 of the 1,200 entries will likely relate to food, and the majority of these to restaurant reviews!). California agriculture and farmers’ markets, cheese manufacturers, specialty food and appliance importers, are reflecting these changes. As a result, ingredients that were once rare are now widely available: mozzarella di bufala, espresso coffee, radicchio, finocchio, arugola, fresh pasta, polenta, prosciutto, blood oranges, etc.

In the 1980’s, a typical restaurant pattern was for a group of investors to hire over an Italian chef for the start up phase of an upscale (often Westside) restaurant operation, often touted as “Northern Italian.” An infusion of Italian master chefs came to Los Angeles in this way. They both contributed to a new Italian cuisine for Americans, and helped change established Italian American restaurants to reflect newer Italian foods and trends. Bakeries such as Il Fornaio were, at the same time, redefining the meaning of Italian bread (and pastries) for Angelenos.

Some old guard Italian Americans restaurants (e.g., red and white checkered tablecloths, wicker wine-flasks, etc.) began showing signs of change and renewal as a result of the new Italian food trend. Red sauces typically based on canned tomatoes, tomato paste, and garlic, lightened up, as fresher ingredients and a lighter touch marked Italian food more generally. Often the only remaining cues are aural: the voice of Frank Sinatra, Caruso, Opera (rather than strains of Italian pop music or Andrea Boccelli) as dinner music. We witnessed such a reaction against Italian American restaurants (identified predominantly with southern-Italian-based cuisines) that even mozzarella-in-carrozza might be labeled as ‘fine “Northern” cuisine.’ Such nonsense was likely designed to lure poorly informed American public to the spare, chic, and more costly establishments. The rapid realignment of affiliations going on fed into the anti-South and anti-immigrant sentiments widespread in Italian culture and shared by non-Italians. Today, the public seems more savvy. Some Post-moderns search out New York-Chicago-, or other old Italian American restaurants consciously, while at the same time beginning to understand the differences between Italian regional cuisines. Today, Italian restaurants are further enriching the range of foods understood as Italian and to prominently name regional food traditions that are Sicilian, Venetian, Roman, Piedmontese, Neapolitan, and so forth. Regionalism is definitely on the rise. Yet at times, this “new” Italian cuisine sometimes overlays a stratum of older Italian American cuisine.

A survey of Italians in all phases of the food industry: from wineries and food producers, food distributors and importers, to markets, delis, cooks, and restaurateurs would reveal the long presence of Italians in this sector, yet awaits the historians’ attention.…

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Foodways, Food Traditions, Gardens

August 26, 2018

Olives picked for home curing

Food, of course, has a primal role in Italian culture, and it is that part of Italian cultural most readily experienced (literally, consumed) by the American public at large. It may not be generally known that food traditions show a tenacity and longevity unmatched by any other area of Italian folklife—possibly because entrusted primarily to women (generally the conservators of family food traditions), partly because what we are taught to eat and how we are taught to eat it becomes so deeply ingrained, is so integrated into a sense of well-being (social and physical), that we do not easily change such habits.

Traditional foodways range from herb and vegetable gardens to curing olives, making wine, to various forms of socialization around food (family dinners to festive occasions). It is no coincidence that many Italian families are involved in some aspect of food production and distribution, often as family-owned businesses. In the past these included: canneries, pasta and cheese production, grocery stores, delis, and restaurants— many of which continue today (e.g., Costa Pasta Mfg., Claro’s Markets). In California furthermore, Italians have historically played a central role in wine and agriculture, as well as in (San Pedro) fisheries (Further reading: Gloria Ricci Lothrop, Italians of Los Angeles, Historical Society of Southern California, 2003.)

Street food vendor at the San Gennaro

festival 2004: fresh raw seafood by Frankie
A common food language. What in linguistics is called a koiné (a common language which emerges when different linguistics groups come into contact) may be found in Italian American food as well. A common food language has arisen that cuts across Italian regional lines (but finds its main sources in central and southern Italian cuisine). When pan-Italian club events take place (the common dinner dance, a picnic, or festival) the structure of a typical dinner will include pasta with red sauce, meat and vegetables (sometimes heaped together on a single plate, American-style), and perhaps cannoli for dessert. At a picnic or less formal event, the pepper and sausage sandwich might be found. Memory of regional specialties is frequently lost (e.g., Northern specialties such as polenta or risotto are rarely seen at such events). On the other hand, regionally-based groups such as the Fameja Veneta now offer polenta dinners to their members. And the growing attention to regional Italian foods in area restaurants, suggests that regional consciousness may be growing more generally.

Snails (lumache) picked in the wild and

Many families of Italian heritage conserve some traditional dishes (or at least fond memories of them). Piedmontese women may still make bagna cauda, Ischietane (from the island of Ischia, off the coast of Naples) their fish dishes alla pescatora, and Sicilians their eggplant and fava bean specialties. The abundance of fish in communities such as San Pedro makes it fairly easy to continue a predominantly fish-based diet, as has proved the case with the Ischietani, for example. In San Pedro until recently, one could even have fresh fish delivered to one’s door by fish retailer Andrea Briguglio or go straight to the docks for the Saturday morning fish market. Even if they have become predominantly American-style meat-eaters, even 3rd and 4th generation Italians conserve at least a few family recipes typically prepared for important festivities. All groups have, for instance, their distinctive (often egg-based) pasta for Christmas and Easter, even though the homemade egg pasta entrée might well be followed by a traditional American turkey or ham.

Traditional, homemade Christmas sweets

Italian festive sweets still to be found among Sicilians are cudureddi, sfingi, and cassadini (sweet ravioli), for Ischietani instead casatella. Because Italian ‘country’ cooking has become so popular with upscale Americans (e.g., Kleiman’s Angeli), there has been a resurgence of dishes once exclusively in the domain of the Italian lower classes—such as panzanella, bruschetta, polenta. Alongside myriad commercial publications (e.g., Marcella Hazan’s Classic Italian Cooking), there exist various cookbooks produced by the local community, which reflect the cooking of Italian Americans. Compilations of recipes collected from individual cooks themselves include: 1) The Women’s Extension of the Garibaldina Society has produced two cookbooks of (authored) family recipes, collected from members: The Best of the Best in Italian Cooking, and Let’s Cook Italian; 2) Dolores Lisica ed., Around the World, Around Our Town: Recipes from San Pedro (illustrated by Leo Politi), Friends of San Pedro Library. The centenary cookbook produced in San Pedro includes 500 recipes from the community’s best cooks (not exclusively Italian). Many of course, also have informal family recipe collections inherited from parents and grandparents.

Evolutions. Foodways are in flux as Italian Americans are expanding their culinary vocabulary, in part due to the general Italianization of California cuisine, the high status of Italian cuisine, and the increasing availability and decreasing prices of Italian products in Southern California. Mozzarella di bufala no longer costs $14/lb. or radicchio rosso $7.98/lb., as they did when they first came on the market, since these and other Italian food items are gaining currency across the Southern California population. While they are not as common as pizza and pasta, signs point in that direction.

Luisa Del Giudice, “Italian American Food and Foodways,” in S. LaGumina, F. Cavaioli, S. Primeggia, J. Varacalli, eds., The Italian American Experience: An Encyclopedia, New York: Garland, 2000: 245-248.

Cuccagna: Mountains of Cheese, Rivers of Wine. The mythic Land of Cuccagna (Cockaigne in English) was popular from the Middle Ages onward, projecting a gastronomic utopia or “poor man’s paradise.” It featured mountains of cheese, rivers of wine, and other sensual delights, as well as punishment for those who worked. This Topsy Turvy world represented a time and place of perpetual feasting. This mythic land survived in Italian popular consciousness for centuries, became one of the driving myths behind mass emigration to America (otherwise known as Cuccagna) and although transformed, still animates aspects of Italian and immigrant culture in America. The greased pole found at public festivals is known as l’albero di Cuccagna. Climbing to the top, one finds special foods, perhaps money, and other prizes. Further reading: Luisa Del Giudice, “Paesi di Cuccagna and other Gastronomic Utopias,” in Imagined States: National Identity, Utopia, and Longing in Oral Cultures, ed. by Luisa Del Giudice and Gerald Porter, Logan: Utah State University Press, 2001: 11-63.

A 17th-century Italian print depicting the mythic

Gardens The Italian presence in California agriculture is well-known (e.g., Oberti olives, Del Monte fruits and vegetables, Mondavi vineyards, etc.), but even urbanized Italians have enjoyed their vegetable and herb gardens, and gardening formed, at least until recently, a traditional topic of discussion (something like discussing the weather) among Italians deriving from the land (as the majority of Italians in America have). It was often the case in the past that land used for non-fruit producing plants (i.e., flowers), was seen as wasted space better used for fruit trees, vegetables, and herbs. But while gardens may still be an important part of Italian home life (it is difficult to gauge to what extent), their importance is becoming secondary as California’s abundant and varied agriculture increasingly produces foods once cultivated only in private gardens (e.g., basil, Italian parsley, rosemary, arugula or rucola, radicchio, etc.). If the majority of Italian Americans no longer grow vegetables such as eggplant, tomatoes, peppers, artichokes, fava beans, and so forth, many continue to grow herbs, despite the fact that they are now widely available in markets. The most cultivate herbs in home gardens include basil, broad leaf Italian parsley, oregano, and rosemary. Vegetables, fruits, and greens difficult to find in markets may still be grown: cicoria, figs, olives, etc. Although vegetable preserving is not all too common today, it still survives, as does olive curing in several central and southern families in whose home regions olives grew, that is Central and Southern Italy (e.g., Fernando Di Bernardo of San Pedro, the oldest surviving fisherman from Ischia, over 100, who also continues to make wine). Slowfood is helping to revive traditions of home-style food processing (See: “tomatomania” events, as well as olive curing seminars, FOOD ASSOCIATIONS, Slowfood)…

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Points of Special Interest: Siquieros Mural (Italian Hall), Royce Hall, Venice Beach, CA

April 24, 2018 Leave a comment

Siqueiros Mural and the Historic Italian Hall. “Near the plaza of El Pueblo, where the village of Los Angeles had been established late in the 18th Century, a painter was hard at work in the late summer and early fall of 1932. On a south-facing exterior wall on the second floor of Italian Hall, once a thriving community benevolent association, the great Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros (1898-1974) had been commissioned by F. K. Ferencz, director of the Plaza Art Gallery, to paint a mural that would be called “America Tropical.” [Ö] With youthful exuberance, Siqueiros had exclaimed, “Let us live our marvelous, dynamic age!” Recalling the fiery rhetoric of the Italian Futurist painters, he sought to inject his art with a vigor commensurate to the technological and political upheavals that marked the tumultuous new century. [Ö] Directly in front of the ancient temple, smack in the visual center of the mural, he painted an Indian lashed with ropes to a wooden cross. Above the crucified figure an American eagle spreads its wings, its razor-sharp talons clutching the cross.[Ö] Not surprisingly, when Siqueiros’ mural was finished and publicly unveiled, pandemonium ensued. A crucified Indian peon and revolutionary soldiers attacking the symbol of the United States were not seen by the city’s political leadership as flattering images. Nearly a third of the mural, the portion visible from Olvera Street below, was quickly covered over with white paint. A few months later, Siqueiros was deported. [Ö] The painting ranks as the fountainhead for the modern mural movement in the city. Not surprisingly, since the late 1960s its aggressive street poetry has been of special interest to the Chicano movement and its artists. [Ö] The significance of the mural places the current conservation effort among the most important the Getty has yet undertaken.”

[From: “Two Murals, Two Histories Sixty years ago, David Alfaro Siqueiros created a scathing image of California colonization, while Dean Cornwell took a more Establishment view; one can be seen now, the other will be restored to view within a year,” by Christopher Knight. Los Angeles Times, Feb 20, 1994. pg. 7]


Venice Beach turns 100 in 2005. “Venice at 100: A Touch of Eden:î KCRW audio documentary by Anthea Raymond (host/producer) on “legendary eccentric beach town” Venice California, celebrating its centennial in 2005, includes reflections from former State Historian Kevin Starr on Venice CA as embodying late 19th century visions of Southern California as the new Mediterranean; short reading by Tony Scibella, recently deceased bongo-playing Beat poet who lived in Venice; information about the two dozen gondoliers who came from Italy at the turn of the 20th century to animate the canals.

Listen to program http://www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/ot/ot041231venice_at_100_a_touc


UCLAís Royce Hall and the Lombard Style. “Beyond the Main Quad a chasm opens up to reveal the rugged hills of Southern California, and modern buildings crowd around in a jumbled institutional collage. But under the shadow of those brick-and-stone quasi-basilicasóJosiah Royce Hall, Haines Hall, Powell Library and Kinsey Hallóone can sense an academic Los Angeles unity that was never quite achieved. [Ö] Designed in 1927 by the firm of Allison & Allison, Royce Hall was meant to help define the “Lombard” or Northern Italian nature of the then brand-new campus. Master planner George W. Kelham and the regents were reminded of that area by the arroyos and scrubby vegetation. They then turned to the forms of the Italian Renaissance in the hope of duplicating the sense of cultural dawn in the wilds of Southern California.

Royce Hall is so successful that it has become a symbol for UCLA. It graces the cover of countless brochures and has been the inspiration for many architects who have since filled out the campus with mostly inferior buildings. [Ö] Royce Hall has become a model for some of our best institutional buildings. Vaguely Mediterranean, vaguely Classical and definitely responsive to the world around it, such buildings give a dignified and appropriate appearance to the otherwise all too fantastic urban games of our city.

From: “UCLA’s Royce Hall: Shining Star in Ensemble of Sensuous Masses,” by Aaron Betsky, Los Angeles Times, Apr 16, 1992. p.2…

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Developers

November 16, 2017

Caruso Affiliates
101 The Grove Drive
Los Angeles CA 90036
Tel: (323) 900-8100
Fax: (323) 900-8101
rlemmo@carusoaffiliated.com

(Rick J. Caruso, President and CEO)
Established in 1980, specializes in retail and entertainment centers, and in town centers “that respect a community’s unique character and reflect the spirit of its residents.” Among its recent successes: the Grove, with an Italian “piazza” flavor and Italian architectural reminiscences. The Grove has recently hosted Italian community events, sponsored in part by the Italian Consulate (e.g., in 2004: Festa della Repubblica festivities, San Gennaro festival).…

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Italian Architectural Evocations in Los Angeles

October 26, 2016

Italian-derived architecture in the Los Angeles area can be attributed to the broad enthusiasm for Mediterranean culture that still inspired the educated and well-to-do a century ago. As had Jefferson at Monticello, so too did the scions of Victorian Industry continue to dream of Italy. The McCormick’s (=International Harvester), even employed a score of Italian masons for decades on their Riven Rock Estate. Boosters were convinced that coastal California would become America’s Riviera, truly Our Italy, as Charles D. Warner entitled his 1891 enticing descriptions. While few evocations of Italy may quite rival Abbot Kinney’s 1904 Venetian folly (see: ART & ARCHITECTURE, Points of Special Interest: Venice Beach, CA), in capillary fashion domestic builders made much use of the loggia and the portico—amenities as expressive of this mild Mediterranean place as the olive and the vine. Recall, too, that longstanding admiration for Italy converged seamlessly with the simultaneous resuscitation of the Hispanic Missions. Ramona (1884) was born of Helen Hunt Jackson’s collaboration with Abbot Kinney to ascertain the sorry state of the Franciscan Missions and their Native American converts. A kindred New England transplant, Charles Lummis, Los Angeles’ librarian, launched the Landmark Club to save, most conspicuously, the Missions (circa 1895). The lovingly restored Missions stood as exemplars for many a mundane building (from train stations—signally those of the Southern Pacific and the Santa Fe—to schools and libraries, to markets and even Protestant churches). The common Roman ancestry of the arch and the column fostered a Mediterranean symbiosis, which proved prolific well on through the 1930’s. For ex., only an architectural historian rambling through, say, Palos Verdes (name coined 1932) can alert us that Wallace Neff’s villas are often “more Italian than Spanish,” or that the Gard House (Cutter) was “to be read as Spanish, but, in truth, many of its architectural details came from rural villas in Tuscany,” just as the Schoolcraft House (Cline) is “a rural Tuscan villa with extensive tilework, windows and doors brought from Italy” (R. Winter & D. Gebhard, An Architectural Guidebook to Los Angeles, revised ed. 2003, pp. 85-86). The porticoed Malaga Cove piazza even has a 2/3 scale Fontana del Nettuno from a 1563 Bolognese original as its centerpiece. Yet just as William Wrigley ordered Avalon “Mediterranean-ized” (ca. 1934 by Otis Shepard) and Santa Barbara’s city fathers crafted a “Mediterranean” building code, Frank Lloyd Wright was deriving ispiration from Mayan excavations, while energetic Mitteleuropean émigré architects were bringing with them International Moderne. Stark flat surfaces, aimed at creating “pure” geometric volumes, rendered Mediterranean Historicism passé.

Yet the Wheel of Fashion ever turns: the American Academy still granted Rome Prizes and the Caput Mundi remained seductive. By the early Sixties, two Princetonians, stirred by their Italian sojourns, militated for a return to complexity and Italian allusions. Both Robert Venturi’s radical Historicist recoveries (1966) and Michael Grave’s chromatic evocations restored Italy as architectural inspiration. The affluent 1980’s saw a new, post-modern wave of Californians eagerly (re-)discovering Italian wine, cuisine, and design—upscale, hip, and stylish. This new Italian wave, so conspicuous in the restaurant and design sectors, shows no signs of receding any time soon. Architecturally it is manifest in wide use of materials such as terracotta, marble, and tile, as well as structural recoveries such as arcades (with arches), courtyards, spaces focused around fountains. New sites vaguely reminiscent of Italian urban landscapes are rising (e.g., the hilltop Getty Museum, the grander malls such as the Grove, or the Beverly Hills Connection), while developers once again give Italian names to their creations (e.g., “Palazzo,” and a plethora of “Villas”).…

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Folk Art & Architecture: Public Folk Art

September 3, 2016

Italians have a centuries-old artisan and hand-craft tradition (material arts) which embraces a variety of media from stone, marble, ceramic tile, and gesso, to wood, and paint, including such art forms as: murals and frescoes, faux marble (and other trompe l’oeil), intarsia, mosaics, cameo carving, sculpting in wood or marble, plaster cast figurines. Other media such as textiles, wax, straw may be used in the domestic arts: embroidery, palm-weaving, decorative foods, ritual displays (e.g., altars, yard shrines). Many of these are alive and well, while others are waning. Names associated with cameo-carving and faux marbling (cf. St. Peter’s Church), are Giovanni Palomba, decorative plasterwork as well as figurines, Arbace Bracci and sons (c/o Garibaldina Society). Wherever Italians have settled, their skills in artisan or hand-crafted traditions have been primary. A comprehensive survey of such artisans has yet to be completed.

They have also held key roles in the construction industry. Italian names are still common among Los Angeles companies (e.g., as Pozzo, builders of Italian Hall, St. Basil’s church). An Italian’s family and home are among his/her greatest treasures. The home is therefore invested with great love, effort, and expense. Once-common embellishments took the form of yard fountains, statues, decorative wrought-iron, and are sometimes still found. Some are more utilitarian, such as a home-build outdoor ovens or barbecues, fruit & vegetable gardens—labors of love often created with one’s one hands, and serving specific cultural needs. And inside Italian American homes one easily finds typically Italian materials such as marble and ceramic tile, not to mention decorative arts which go from Baroque to the latest imported furniture and other items of contemporary design: See: ARTS: Interior Decor). Indeed, imported marble and tile companies have lately sprouted around the Southland, as these materials become more commonly used (See ARTISANS: Building Trades).…

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Italian Architectural Evocations in Los Angeles

August 17, 2016

Italian-derived architecture in the Los Angeles area can be attributed to the broad enthusiasm for Mediterranean culture that still inspired the educated and well-to-do a century ago. As had Jefferson at Monticello, so too did the scions of Victorian Industry continue to dream of Italy. The McCormick’s (=International Harvester), even employed a score of Italian masons for decades on their Riven Rock Estate. Boosters were convinced that coastal California would become America’s Riviera, truly Our Italy, as Charles D. Warner entitled his 1891 enticing descriptions. While few evocations of Italy may quite rival Abbot Kinney’s 1904 Venetian folly (see: ART & ARCHITECTURE, Points of Special Interest: Venice Beach, CA), in capillary fashion domestic builders made much use of the loggia and the portico—amenities as expressive of this mild Mediterranean place as the olive and the vine. Recall, too, that longstanding admiration for Italy converged seamlessly with the simultaneous resuscitation of the Hispanic Missions. Ramona (1884) was born of Helen Hunt Jackson’s collaboration with Abbot Kinney to ascertain the sorry state of the Franciscan Missions and their Native American converts. A kindred New England transplant, Charles Lummis, Los Angeles’ librarian, launched the Landmark Club to save, most conspicuously, the Missions (circa 1895). The lovingly restored Missions stood as exemplars for many a mundane building (from train stations—signally those of the Southern Pacific and the Santa Fe—to schools and libraries, to markets and even Protestant churches). The common Roman ancestry of the arch and the column fostered a Mediterranean symbiosis, which proved prolific well on through the 1930’s. For ex., only an architectural historian rambling through, say, Palos Verdes (name coined 1932) can alert us that Wallace Neff’s villas are often “more Italian than Spanish,” or that the Gard House (Cutter) was “to be read as Spanish, but, in truth, many of its architectural details came from rural villas in Tuscany,” just as the Schoolcraft House (Cline) is “a rural Tuscan villa with extensive tilework, windows and doors brought from Italy” (R. Winter & D. Gebhard, An Architectural Guidebook to Los Angeles, revised ed. 2003, pp. 85-86). The porticoed Malaga Cove piazza even has a 2/3 scale Fontana del Nettuno from a 1563 Bolognese original as its centerpiece. Yet just as William Wrigley ordered Avalon “Mediterranean-ized” (ca. 1934 by Otis Shepard) and Santa Barbara’s city fathers crafted a “Mediterranean” building code, Frank Lloyd Wright was deriving ispiration from Mayan excavations, while energetic Mitteleuropean émigré architects were bringing with them International Moderne. Stark flat surfaces, aimed at creating “pure” geometric volumes, rendered Mediterranean Historicism passé.

Yet the Wheel of Fashion ever turns: the American Academy still granted Rome Prizes and the Caput Mundi remained seductive. By the early Sixties, two Princetonians, stirred by their Italian sojourns, militated for a return to complexity and Italian allusions. Both Robert Venturi’s radical Historicist recoveries (1966) and Michael Grave’s chromatic evocations restored Italy as architectural inspiration. The affluent 1980’s saw a new, post-modern wave of Californians eagerly (re-)discovering Italian wine, cuisine, and design—upscale, hip, and stylish. This new Italian wave, so conspicuous in the restaurant and design sectors, shows no signs of receding any time soon. Architecturally it is manifest in wide use of materials such as terracotta, marble, and tile, as well as structural recoveries such as arcades (with arches), courtyards, spaces focused around fountains. New sites vaguely reminiscent of Italian urban landscapes are rising (e.g., the hilltop Getty Museum, the grander malls such as the Grove, or the Beverly Hills Connection), while developers once again give Italian names to their creations (e.g., “Palazzo,” and a plethora of “Villas”).…

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Guide to a Diverse Community

April 4, 2016 Leave a comment

Italians in Los Angeles: Guide to a Diverse Community (Luisa Del Giudice)

Demographics: Los Angeles: Fourth Italian City in the U.S. According to the most recent OSIA profile of Italians in America, based on the Year 2000 Census, Italian Americans are the nation’s fourth largest European ancestry group (after Germans, Irish, English), counting 15,700,000 or 6% of the entire U.S. population. Self-identification as “Italian American” increased by 7% since the 1990 census, Italian is the fourth foreign language most spoken in U.S. homes, and 66% are white-collar workers. Here are some statistics regarding California and Los Angeles Italians: California is the third state in the U.S. with most Italian Americans (1,450,000), after New York and New Jersey. Los Angeles is the 5th metropolitan area in the U.S. with most Italian Americans (after New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago): 568,000 (of a total metro population of 16,373,000). Among U.S. cities, Los Angeles ranks 4th in numbers of Italian Americans (95,300 out of a total population of 3,695,000). When Italians and California are mentioned in the same sentence, Northern California normally springs to mind, yet San Francisco has a total of only 39,200 Italians, out of a total population of 776,800—albeit in a more condensed geographic area.

(From: “A Profile of Today’s Italian Americans,” A Report Based on the Year 2000 Census, compiled by the Order Sons of Italy in America, OSIA, http://www.osia.org, see CLUBS & ORGANIZATIONS)


An Invisible Community? These statistics may be somewhat surprising. Yet the fact that currently there is no, publicly-identified “Little Italy” in Los Angeles, although the area around St. Peter’s Italian Church in what is now Chinatown, was once known as “Little Italy,” and that the majority of Italians seem to have been assimilated into the American mainstream and have ceased to “cluster,” account for the perception that Italians in Los Angeles are often invisible—even to themselves. (This online project, in fact, was created, in part, to help make the Italian community more visible to Angelenos—whether of Italian heritage or not.)

While in the 1980’s Los Angeles’ élites came to savor Italy’s culinary arts, its design innovations, and its fine arts, not surprisingly a majority of Italians (of remote peasant origin) remained silent—feeling slightly ambiguous about their personal heritage, or what may be referred to as their own regional Italian folk cultures. While 3rd-generation Italian Americans become increasingly interested in contemporary Italian culture and in Italian “high” culture, often visiting Italy for the first time or enrolling in Italian language courses, their parents and grandparents were sometimes “left in a time warp.” The fading of Italian identity during mid-century (until the ethnic revival of the 70’s) was more widespread in the U.S. than in other countries where Italians immigrated later (e.g., Canada). In Los Angeles this process of assimilation may have been even more rapid than in the East. The more tolerant and spacious California human environment did not make ethnic solidarity and geographic cohesion such strong psychological imperatives. Further, Italians of the earliest immigration, predominantly northern, were few and proved more readily assimilable than the subsequent numbers of immigrants from Southern Italy. Many descendents of these pioneers may vaguely remember that a grandparent was Italian or that their parents spoke Italian (amongst themselves only) or that they ate foods dimly recognized as Italian derived (e.g., polenta), do not feel particularly “Italian” today, although, as the 2000 Census reports, more Americans are generally identifying themselves as Italians. This new-found caché in all things Italian (but especially food, design, and travel), has made Italians and Italian culture clearly more visible in Los Angeles.


Italian Immigration to Los Angeles. Greater Los Angeles contains various historical strata of Italians: l) limited 19th-C. immigration from the Northern regions of Italy (Piedmont, Liguria, Lombardy and Ticino, western Tuscany); 2) larger numbers of Southern Italian (Puglia, Sicily, Calabria) in the early part of the 20th-C (although immigration quotas limited these numbers); 3) post-WWII immigration of Italians from all the above (but especially the South), from the Atlantic States (notably N.Y., Mass, Pennsylvania), a sprinkling from other Western States (i.e., Colorado), and even from South America—”trans-migrants” who have undergone a longer acculturation process than most, and; 4) recent individual middle-class or “white collar” “immigrants” (n.b. who might eschew this very term), primarily in business and in the professions. This growing presence of transient or “sojourning” Italians, numerically insignificant yet culturally and economically influential, might be considered part of Italy’s “brain drain” and entrepreneurial élan. They often represent outposts of Italian government and commerce (gravitating toward the Italian Consulate, the Trade Commission), academia & industry (the sciences and technology), entertainment, the arts, and food-related businesses (see: FOOD, Introduction). This trans-oceanic set represents contemporary Italian culture and tends to remain distinct and separate from the larger, established local Italian American community, and may be found primarily on the Westside.


Italians and Italian Americans. Amid this diversity of Italians, a self-selection process naturally occurs. Indeed a genuine gulf exists between Italian Americans and contemporary Italians—little interested in “folk” or “ethnic” manifestations of tradition. Since the vast majority of the historic Italian American community has rural and small town roots, however, traditional forms of folklife are the patrimony, whether acknowledged, remembered, or not, of this group. The historic community of Italians (now of second or third generation) who do form into associations, tend to make the preservation of cultural heritage and the celebration of town and regional festivities, a priority (See: CLUBS & ASSOCIATIONS). Post-economic boom Italians (1960s-) instead have a markedly different experience of Italian history and culture and have more often arrived as middle class professionals. Increasing economic parity and various other factors (e.g., shared work and educational milieux, recent experiences of Italian travel among older immigrants) have however helped blur such boundaries in recent years. Further, various aspects of Italian folk culture (festivals, foods, customs—but those associated with Italy rather than with Italians in America) have acquired renewed interest for descendents of the older as well as newer Italians. For instance, Italian traditional music collected in the field from oral tradition (See: PERFORMING ARTS, Traditional Music)—although little known—is showing greater appeal for young descendants of immigrants rediscovering their cultural roots, than is the “folk music” typical of Italian American (e.g., staged red, white and green, tambourine-shaking, “generic” tarantella dancers) festivals and other heritage events.


Suburban diffusion. Early Italians (See: ITALIANS AT EL PUEBLO), those primarily in agriculture (truck farming and vineyards), were also to be found in rural areas such as the San Fernando and San Gabriel Valleys, out through Upland, Cucamonga into San Bernardino County (cf. Guasti Winery, see: FURTHER READING, D’Amico). The early urban cluster spread from the Plaza at El Pueblo, to Lincoln Heights, and in the post WWII era fanned further eastward to suburban communities such as Alhambra, Monterey Park, Glendale, San Marino, and northward to Los Feliz-Vermont and even Encino, not to mention Santa Barbara or San Diego. Today, according to the informal census provided by the Italian newspaper’s circulation (See: MEDIA, Publications, L’Italo-Americano), ethnically loyal Italians can be found in Highland Park, S. Pasadena, Alhambra, Arcadia, Covina, Encino, Northridge, Woodland Hills, Burbank, Glendale. Further, many Italians participate in the Italian Catholic Federation (See: CLUBS & ASSOCIATION, Religious) which is affiliated with approximately 60 parishes (30 in Los Angeles, l0-12 in San Gabriel, about the same in San Fernando, and miscellaneous others). Because the ICF somewhat limits non-Italian participation in its chapters, their presence in the diocese is some indication of the demographic diffusion of the Italian community in Los Angeles.


San Pedro (See: SAN PEDRO: Italian Fishing Community; See: CELEBRATION, Folk Festival). While the downtown cluster (St. Peter’s Italian Church, Casa Italiana, and Italian Hall) may loosely be construed as a “Little Italy” (although resident Italians are now rare in that area), San Pedro may today represent the only visible local nucleus of Italians and approximate a de facto “Little Italy,” although outward diffusion and the changing fishing industry are changing this community as well. This clustering on the Los Angeles landscape has arisen for a unique reason. Until recently, San Pedro was geographically discrete and occupationally compact due to its function as Los Angeles’ port. Its two predominant Italian groups held a significant role in the local fishing industry (even though they leave no trace in the Los Angeles Maritime Museum!). San Pedro Italians come from two Italian island fishing communities: Ischia and Sicily. Although they arrived in the migrations of the early 20th C (the Sicilians later), the autonomous nature of this group’s trade, and the relative geographic compactness of San Pedro, fostered the preservation of ethnic loyalty.

San Pedro Italians and Los Angeles Italians may see themselves as separate communities and, as commonly occurs, each side’s perception of the other is that Italian culture is best preserved “over there.” Los Angeles Italians may see San Pedro as a compact and conservative Italian community (an “urban village”), while the San Pedrans point instead to St. Peter’s Church and Casa Italiana as the center of more large-scale Italian activity and events. San Pedro has few formal Italian American associations. This may be due to geographic, cultural, and occupational homogeneity (even though the fishing industry is in decline, the Ischietani and Sicilians have a common origin in San Pedro), rendering further forms of association superfluous. While the two San Pedro Italian groups have not formed their respective town and regional clubs, the Ischietani nonetheless have gravitated toward the Italian Catholic Federation (through their parish churches, such as Mary Star of the Sea), while the Sicilians are represented in great numbers in the Italian American Club and in the Trappeto (prov. of Palermo, Sicily) Club. They celebrate these patron saint days: Saint John Joseph (for the Ischietani); St. Joseph and St. Rosalia for the Sicilians, and St. Peter (Italian American Club). In past decades the Fisherman’s feasts (now in decline) were a major expression of the Italian community’s traditional culture. (See: COLLECTIONS, Archives).


Fragmentation and Unity. The extreme diversification of Italians (e.g., the North-South split, marked regionalism, and a sense of attachment to one’s hometown) are too well-documented in Italy and among immigrants, to repeat here. On the one hand, this diversity presents a richness of culture; while on the other, it creates obstacles when concerted effort and unity of action are called for. The pull between diversity and homogeneity may create ambiguities of cultural allegiance. For instance, for many older immigrants (particularly those who lived through the xenophobic war years when national loyalties were tested), needed to make American allegiance explicit, and succeeded, perhaps more in uniting Italian Americans on the “American” rather than on the “Italian” side of the equation. Their Italian side however, continued to promote splintering—defying many a St. Peter’s priest called to the community to administer to the notoriously factional community (See: FURTHER READING, St. Peter’s Italian Church). A need for unifying Italians seems to have been broadly felt in the 1970’s and continues to reverberate on up to the present for a variety of reasons. A residual splintering effect (due to regional and social origins, along with present economic and geographic factors) has generally thwarted clarity of direction and impact and has likely contributed to the Italian community’s relative invisibility. Some club charters actually preclude banding with other similar clubs, in order to better preserve their individuality. Recent developments however indicate that this situation may be improving.


St. Peter’s Catholic Church and the Scalabrini Order (See: RELIGION). The Scalabrini Fathers (Missionaries of St. Charles), under the energetic Father Luigi (Donanzan), have proven a major unifying force in the Italian community. The Scalabrinians, whose mission is to serve the needs of migrants and refugees (founded by Giovanni Battista Scalabrini in 1887 to assist immigrants to the Americas), continue to minister to their social and cultural needs as well as the strictly material and pastoral (See: RELIGION). (Today, under Father Giovanni Bizzotti, the Church also serves as a soup kitchen to the area’s migrants and the homeless.) The order managed L’Italo-Americano…

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Food Associations

January 24, 2016

Slow Food boasts 80,000 members in more than 100 countries, organized into more than 800 local convivia. In Italy there are about 35,000 members and 360 convivia (in Italy known as condotte). In the rest of the world, there are about 450 convivia and the number is continuing to grow. The condotte in Italy and the convivia worldwide are the linchpins of the Slow Food movement and interpret and represent its philosophy at local level. The head of the condotta or convivium is the fiduciary or convivium leader, who, through the members and the central office, organizes food and wine events and initiatives, creates moments of conviviality, raises the profile of products and promotes local artisans and wine cellars. He also organizes tasting courses and Taste Workshops and promulgates new food and wine developments and knowledge of the products and cuisines of other areas. In short, he educates in matters of taste.”
From: “Slow Food: The Movement”: http://www.slowfood.com/eng/sf_ita_mondo/sf_ita_mondo.lasso

The American Institute of Wine & Food
National Headquarters
1303 Jefferson Street, Suite 100-B
Napa, CA 94559
Tel: (800) 274-AIWF (2493)
Fax (707) 255-5547
Jodie Morgan, Executive Director: jmorgan@aiwf.org
Shannon Brown, Director of Chapter Relations: sbrown@aiwf.org

The AIWF and Julia Child.
“In 1981 Julia Child, Robert Mondavi, Richard Graff, and others founded The American Institute of Wine & Food, a non-profit educational organization devoted to improving the appreciation, understanding, and accessibility of food and drink. […] AIWF chapters are the heart and soul of The AIWF. Thought-provoking seminars, unique educational opportunities and festive social gatherings at the local level inspire a lively and comprehensive exchange of information and ideas.”
From “About the AIWF”: http://www.aiwf.org/national/ )

Culinary Historians of Southern California
c/o Los Angeles Public Library
630 W. Fifth St.
Los Angeles, CA 90071
Tel: (213) 228-7101

“The Culinary Historians of Southern California (CHSC), founded in 1995, is a group of scholars, cooks, food writers, nutritionists, collectors, students, and others interested in the study of culinary history and gastronomy. The group’s purpose is to provide a forum for the discussion of food in society and to support the culinary collections at the Los Angeles Public Library. At regular programs, usually held on the second Saturday of the month at the Central Library, invited speakers share their expertise on topics related to culinary history and gastronomy.” From: http://www.lapl.org/central/science.html…

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Italian Public Art & Architecture in Greater Los Angeles: Historical Survey

December 19, 2015

Junipero Serra: Statue in the park directly east of the Plaza kiosko is a copy of the original created in the 1930s by Ettore Cadorin. It stands in Statuary Hall in Washington, D.C., representing one of the two persons of distinction selected to represent the state of California.

Avila Adobe (10 Olvera Street): Constructed in 1818, the oldest existing residence in Los Angeles, in the 1880s served as a boarding house known as the Hotel d’Italia Unita. For some time it also housed a restaurant operated by Secondo Guasti and Rosa Morelli.

Pelanconi House (W17 Olvera Street): One of the first brick buildings constructed in Los Angeles was built around 1855 by Austro-Italian Giuseppe Covacichi. Antonio Pelanconi purchased it in 1865. Today it houses La Golandrina Café.

Italian Hall (642 N. Main St.): The second story of this yellow brick building built by the Pozzo Construction Company served as headquarters for the Italian Mutual Benevolence Society from 1908 to 1931. In 1994 the City of Los Angeles approved the site for use as a museum and meeting hall for the Italian American community. [See COMMUNITY SITES: Historic Italian Hall Foundation]

Central City and South

Colpo d’Ala, by Arnoldo Pomodoro (W. First and N. Hope Streets): The graceful metal sculpture which appears to float above the south reflecting pool of the Department of Water and Power was a gift from the Italian government to the City of Los Angeles to mark the 40th anniversary of the Marshall Plan.

Museum of Contemporary Art (250 S. Grand Avenue) Holdings include the Giuseppe Panza di Biuma collection of 80 Abstract Expressionist and Pop artworks purchased in 1984; the Panzas donated 70 works by Los Angeles artists in 1994.

Statue of Christopher Columbus (South walkway, Civic Center Mall): The likeness of navigator/explorer, Christopher Columbus, created by Francesco Perotti of Piacenza, Italy, was given to the City by local chapters of the Order of the Sons of Italy in America.

Sculptures by Mark di Suvero and Frank Stella: Wells Fargo Center, Fourth Street and Flower Avenue.

Dusk by Frank Stella, one of the world’s largest murals, covers about 35,000 feet of wall space – about the length of a city block – on the Gas Co. Tower, 555 West 5th Street.

Murals by Giovanni Battista Smeraldi (Biltmore Hotel, 515 S. Olive Street), Wall and ceiling murals in the style of Giovanni Vasari were executed by Smeraldi and his team of Italian craftsmen in the early 1920s.

Doughboy, long a feature of Pershing Square, a tribute to the United States fighting men of World War I, was sculpted by Umberto Pedretti.

Nicola Restaurant (601 S. Figueroa): Designed by contemporary restaurant architect, Michael Rotundi.

Bas Reliefs Symbolizing Modern Industry, by Salvatore Cartiano Scarpitta (618 S. Spring Street): Façade of former Pacific Coast Stock Exchange.

Building, designed by Allison and Allison (1031 S. Broadway): Structure noted for its Italian Renaissance architecture, particularly the loggia and the roof garden with its courtyard.

Jonathan Club (545 S. Figueroa Street): The building is designed in the manner of early 16th-century Italian Renaissance architecture. The wall and ceiling murals were executed by Giovanni Smeraldi in 1925.

Giannini/Bank of America (649 S. Olive Street): Built in 1922 for the Bank of Italy (Bank of America) in Renaissance Revival style by Morgan, Walls & Clements. Historic-Cultural Monumnet #354.

Fine Arts Building (811 W. 7th Street): The street façade of this twelve-story building with its arched windows, columns, sculptured corbelling and elongated doomuns, is an exact replica of the façade of La Chiesa di San Michele in Foro located in Lucca, Italy.

William Andrews Clark Library (2520 Cimmarron Street): The building, designed by Robert Farquhar in 1923, is in the Italian Renaissance style. The entrance vestibule is Italian Baroque. The paneled drawing room is a replica of the Sala del Collegio in the Doge’s Palace in Venice. Historic-Cultural Monument #28.

Daniel Murphy Residence (2076 W. Adams Blvd): Built in 1906, was the city’s first Italian Renaissance-style house.

Guasti Villa (3500 W. Adams Blvd.): Italian Renaissance Revival structure built in 1910 by Secondo Guasti, California Wine Commissioner and owner of the world’s largest vineyard of the period. In 1936 it was sold to Hollywood director, Busby Berkeley. Historic-Cultural Monument #478.

Touriel Medical Building (2608-10 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.): The steel frame, post and beam structure was designed by architect Raphael S. Soriano in 1950.

St. John’s Episcopal Church (514 W. Adams Blvd.): Interior ceiling is modeled aftr the Church of San Miniato in Florence. The bas-reliefs surrounding the rose window were designed by Salvatore Cartiano Scarpitta, one of Italy’s most famous sculptors. Historic-Cultural Monument #516.

Mudd Hall of Philosophy (University of Southern California): The highlight of this Lombardy Romanesque building designed by Ralph C. Flewelling in 1926, are the graceful cloisters on the east side of the building.

Doheny Memorial Library (University of Southern California): The library, designed by Cram and Ferguson in 1931 has been described as “the most luxuriant of the northern Italian Renaissance buildings on the campus.”

Owens Hall (University of Southern California): The structure, completed in 1930, is a southern California version of the rural Tuscan villa.

Towers of Simon Rodia (1765 E. 107th Street): Working alone from 1924 to 1954 Simon Rodia erected three concrete towers measuring as high as 104 feet. The structure, embellished with sea shells, wood, broken glass and china, has been described as a remarkable expression of folk art. Historic-Cultural Monument #15. [See Folk Art]

Los Feliz, Hollywood and Westside

Earl C. Anthony Home (3412 Waverly Drive): Residence, now retreat center, designed by Bernard Maybeck in Euro-eclectic style with an emphasis on the Italian Renaissance. Formal gardens designed by Lucille Council in 1968 reinforce Italianate motif.

Gates to Los Angeles Zoo, Griffith Park, designed by Carlo Romanelli for William Zelig’s private zoo were recently rediscovered and are being incorporated into the municipal zoo’s redesign.

Statue of St. Martin de Pores, by Gemma D’Auria: Monastery of the Angels Gardens, 1977 Carmen Ave.

High Tower (North End of High Tower Road): Landmark built in 1920 is based upon the tower of Bologna.

Villa d’Este Apartments (1355 Laurel Ave.): The lovely complex designed in the 1920s by Pierpont and Walter S. Davis is patterned after its namesake on Lake Maggiore.

Murals, by Ettore Serbaroli: Rosary Chapel, Immaculate Conception Church, 1433 W. 9th Street.

Pacific Design Center (The Blue Whale): Designed by architect Cesare Pelli for Victor Gruen & Associates.

Beverly Hills Post Office (Canon Dr. & Santa Monica Blvd.): Designed in 1932 by Ralph Flewelling, uses terra cotta and brick in an effective rendering of the Italian Renaissance style.

Greenacres (Former Harold Lloyd Estate), 1040 Angelo Drive: Italian Renaissance structure designed by Sumner Spaulding in 1928 is significant as one of the finest residential and garden complexes in Los Angeles. Historic-Cultural Monument #279.

Royce Hall, UCLA: The building, designed by Allison & Allison, is in the Lombard Romanesque style as is the library across the quadrangle. It is a free adaptation of San Ambrosio in Milan. Many other buildings on campus are adapted from the Romanesque style, while the Chancellor’s residence, designed by Reginald Johnson in 1930, reflects the style of a northern Italian villa.

Beach Cities

J. Paul Getty Museum (17985 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu): The building constructed in 1972-73, is a replica of the Villa dei Papyri at Herculaneum which was engulfed by lava in 79 A.D.

Statue of Blessed Junipero Serra, by John Pasquale Napolitano, Serra Retreat House (3401 Serra Road & Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu): This is one of the most forceful and accessible sculptures created by a gifted Italian-American artist.

Exterior Sculpture, by Joseph Conradi and Interior Murals of Ettore Serbaroli, Saint Monica’s Church, 7th Street and California Ave., Santa Monica.

Venice Center (Windward Ave., between Pacific & Speedway, Venice): The buildings, including the three-story Hotel Saint Mark’s, are what remain of Abbot Kinney’s effort to build a Venice in America in the early 20th Century. Historic-Cultural Monument #532. [See: A Bit of History: Venice]

Venice Canals: Although the gondoliers returned to Italy and many canals were filled in, several exist south of Venice Blvd. Four of Kinney’s Venetian bridges still stand. [See: A Bit of History: Venice, interview clip]

Jasper D’Ambrosi “Jacob’s Ladder,” American Merchant Marine Veterans’ Memorial, 6th Street & Harbor Blvd., San Pedro: D’Ambrosi, a native of Wilmington, died in 1986. The bronze statue was completed by his sons, Mark and Michael.…

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