How a new city restaurant was formed... and tuck into this week’s recipe
LEE Conetta is Glasgow food royalty, with many years’ experience helping to run one of the city’s biggest restaurant groups.
Each fortnight in Times Out, she will share memories of her life less ordinary, and the food she loves to cook.
This week, Mrs Conetta shares the story of how her late husband’s beloved Di Maggio’s was born and cooks up a hearty lasagne…
WHEN Joe and I lived in Bothwell in the 1980s, we often went to a restaurant called Da Luciano. It was owned by our friends,
Mr and Mrs Poli, and one evening, they asked us if we would like to buy the restaurant as they were thinking of retiring.
We thought seriously about it, and Joe even worked there for a couple of nights, but it was not for us.
However, it had sparked the thought for Joe that he wanted to open a restaurant, a relaxed and inclusive place with an approachable atmosphere.
So, Joe went into business with my brother-in-law, Mario Gizzi Snr, who was married to my sister Phyllis.
Times Past readers might know Mario’s Cafe in Fernhill, or the very famous Glasgow pub McNee’s at Eglinton Toll.
Together they managed to persuade young Mario, who was a successful accountant, to join them.
They opened the Farmhouse Kitchen on St Vincent Street, which was popular with local office workers.
In 1983, when the owners of the building had other ideas for it, the restaurant had to close, and we had to rethink our plans – what now?
We all got together to discuss what we should do. We knew we wanted to open an Italian restaurant, but not the kind with formality and white tablecloths.
We wanted somewhere more casual, a place for young couples and families, a place for children – the customers of the future – where people would feel comfortable as soon as they walked through the door.
What should we call it? I was looking at Joe and Mario and thought, why not combine ‘ma’ and ‘jo’ and that became Di Maggio’s which, with its associations with the famous baseball player, and the combination of American and Italian, was perfect. It was scary and exhilarating designing a new business.
My son Antony came into the business after completing a course of hotel and catering management at Strathclyde University and working in London for a while.
Joe, Antony and Mario worked
well together and each had great respect for each other, and Di Maggio’s grew into The DRG, which has made us pleased and proud.
It all began at that brainstorming session around the table almost 40 years ago, me planning menus, Joe dreaming up imaginative names for things, like Chicken Chicago and Bad Ass Wings…all inspired by our love of food and travel to places like Italy and America.
We were a good team. Today’s recipe is a classic from our early menu that remains a popular dish to this day. Enjoy!