A grateful Giovanni’s gives back by supporting the Heart Institute’s JUMP IN fundraiser
Lisa Cocco Pollastrini is the 80-year-old matriarch of Ottawa’s Giovanni’s Ristorante family, a beloved grandmother who came to Canada as a teenager from Abruzzo on Italy’s Adriatic Coast.
She opened the restaurant on Preston Street 37 years ago, and together, with her husband Giuseppe (Peppe) Pollastrini, made Giovanni’s a family affair that over the decades has become part of the landscape in Ottawa’s Little Italy.
For years, Lisa was the face of Giovanni’s, all sparkling eyes, a flamboyant waft of coiffed hair and a warm, familiar smile that made folks feel right at home — and, along with the food, helped keep them coming back.
“She was always in the front,” says her granddaughter, Lisa Cocco Pollastrini, 23. “She would be the first face people would see. Now it’s me and my dad Nino.”
The family patriarch, Giuseppe, died in 2013.
Familiarity and continuity are part of what keeps people coming back to Giovanni’s. It’s like an extended family that unexpectedly expanded when Grandma Pollastrini and later her son, Nino Cocco Pollastrini, were stricken with heart disease.
Both have received ongoing treatment at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. Over the course of multiple surgeries, treatments and follow-ups, the Giovanni restaurant family became well known to the Heart Institute family. Now, Heart Institute staff are regulars at Giovanni’s.
“They did so much for our whole family,” says granddaughter Lisa. “They were always there for us and made sure we were looked after right away. All the people there, they’ve become like one big family.”
That’s why Giovanni’s is one of several local businesses matching donations to JUMP IN, a new fundraising event for the University of Ottawa Heart Institute Foundation.
Beginning Sept. 1, the JUMP IN for Women’s Heart Health initiative is a 30-day heart health promotion that will encourage Canadians to plan 30 minutes of physical activity each day for 30 days.
Whether as demanding as high-intensity interval training or as light and carefree as playing hide and seek with kids or grandkids, the fundraising event invites participants to share photos and videos of themselves engaging in physical activity to social media, using the hashtag #JumpIn4HeartHealth.
Funds raised through the program’s donations will be matched dollar-for-dollar by Giovanni’s all month long. Additional donation matching throughout the month is provided by CIBC Wood-Gundy Gallant MacDonald. There are additional weekly match sponsors, education sponsors and lots of prizes to be won. Proceeds from JUMP IN will support research, education and programming of women’s heart health initiatives at the institute.
Giovanni’s and a grateful Cocco Pollastrini family have been longtime supporters of the institute including the annual Fuller-Keon Golf Tournament, and each February they offer a week of donation matching during Heart Month.
“It means a lot to our family,” says Lisa. “We’re very proud supporters and we always have been.”
Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women worldwide and perennially the leading cause of premature death in Canada.
The Canadian Women’s Heart Health Centre has shown that Canadian women themselves are not always aware of the symptoms, the risk factors of heart disease, and how physiological, psychosocial and other differences with men set their risks, experiences, treatments and outcomes apart. The centre is completely funded by the community and donations.
Grandmother Pollastrini retired about eight years ago. Her son — and her namesake’s father — Nino Sr., 53, runs the restaurant alongside Lisa’s bookkeeper mom, Marta. Working with brother Nino Jr., Lisa says she loves the intimacy of a family business.
“My dad worked there his whole entire life,” says Lisa. “I’ve been working at the restaurant for three years now. Me and my dad are there every day.
“We live right beside each other and everybody gets along. People ask all the time, ‘oh, how’s it working with family,’ but I like it. I like working with my dad every day.”
Not a day goes by that restaurant patrons don’t ask her about her grandma.
Says Lisa: “The past few months have been difficult for so many seniors, but her spirits are good and she’s doing OK.”
For more information on JUMP IN or to make a matched donation, visit