Four Salerno brothers came to America from Italy in the late 1950s, opened a bar in Berwyn in 1966, and served up pizza, lasagna and other Italian food. The brothers used to go trap shooting on land west of St. Charles. A real-estate agent/friend convinced them to buy land in St. Charles on the Fox River, telling them, "How nice to be on the water, like Venice."

And so, the Italian eatery Salerno's on-the-Fox opened in 1975 in its current location, offering the same recipes handed down from the owners' mothers. Southern Italian recipes like thick pizza crust rolled from a broomstick, pasta dishes like ravioli, cavatelli and lasagna. "We still use family recipes from our regular recipe book that was created in 1968 or 1970 and kept it up ever since," said Adam Salerno, one of the Salerno brothers who runs the St. Charles mainstay with his son, Joe.