Cincinnati celebrated its first Sacred Heart Italian Dinner in 1910—four decades before the first Skyline Chili opened and 20 years before Buddy LaRosa was born. Automobiles were so rare that neighbors raced out of their houses to gawk when a Model T rumbled down the street.

The Italian dinner at Sacred Heart Church in Camp Washington, in other words, is a Cincinnati tradition with a capital T, serving 210,000 ravioli, 23,000 meatballs, and 600 gallons of sauce to some 2,000 diners and 3,000 carryout customers at its peak. An army of sauce stirrers, meatball makers, and ravioli chefs worked the kitchen into their 80s and beyond.