Authorities investigate suspicious fire at former Kenmore Italian Civic Club
Akron authorities were investigating a suspicious two-alarm fire at the former Kenmore Italian Civic Club building at Kenmore Boulevard and Manchester Road. Firefighters responded to the building at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday and found white smoke. They shut down the roads while battling the fire. Authorities said no one was injured. The fire caused about $...
Eating Ideas, Educating the Senses through Images. The Magazine "La Gola" in 1980s Italy
When: Monday, April 23, 2018 At 6:00 pm - Where: Istituto Italiano di Cultura Chicago - 500 N Michi - What: "ating Ideas, Educating the Senses through Images. The Magazine "La Gola" in 1980s Italy", A Lecture by Professor Margherita D'Ayala Valvais, Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa. Presented on the occasion of the 2018 Year of Italian Food, as dec...
IA Literati to spotlight local writers - 2018, May 12
IA Literati 2018 — Casa Italia’s 14th annual celebration of local Italian-American authors — will run from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. on May 12 in the Florentine Room of the Italian Cultural Center in Stone Park. Book sales and signings, raffles, and a meet-and-greet with the authors will take place at 9:30 a.m. Authors will read from their works starting...
Gervasi Vineyard names distillery, hotel
Gervasi Vineyard has named its distillery and boutique hotel, both of which are projected to be built by late 2018 to early 2019. The distillery will be called The Still House at Gervasi Vineyard, and the hotel will be The Casa at Gervasi Vineyard. The names keep in theme with its winery house, called The Crush House. (Crushing is an early and crit...
Lincolnwood Today Welcomes Phil Stefani and Family’s New Restaurant
Phil Stefani — along with wife Karen and children Anthony and Gina — have opened a restaurant minutes from their home today in Lincolnwood as today’s the first official day of business forStefani Prime. Billed as a restaurant worthy of Chicago’s dining scene, only in the suburbs, Prime brings together steaks, seafood, and classic Italian-American d...
Jazz community aids recovering crooner
Jazz singer Paul Marinaro collapsed at Winter’s Jazz Club in December 2017 with a case of diverticulitis so severe it burst his intestines and brought him to the brink of death. Lacking health insurance, Marinaro would have been buried in medical bills were it not for the Chicago jazz community, which rallied support through a GoFundMe campaign and...
Saving History: Salvatore Artino's WWI Souvenir
Salvatore Artino was eight-years-old when he emigrated from Sant’Agata Militello, Messina, Sicily, with his older brother, Vincenzo, in 1903. They settled in Lorain County near Bellevue, OH, as Vincenzo was able to secure work on the railroads in that area. When Italy entered WWI in April of 1915, Salvatore had just turned 20-years-old. He was stil...
Veterans column: Ghiloni twins join the Navy
Clement Ghiloni emigrated from Italy to the United States in 1899 at the age 16. By 1910, he along with brothers Julian and Samuel moved to Newark, Ohio to start a fruit business. In 1913, Clement married 18-year-old Bessie Baker, a bookkeeper from Croton. The couple started their lives together in a home at 561 Granville Street. Soon they welcomed...
Commedia comes to the Casa
The Italian American Theatre of Chicago presented “Vispetta” in the Community Center at Casa Italia in March. Adapted by Colleen Mraz from traditional 16th-century commedia dell’arte, the farce followed the misadventures of two star-crossed lovers, their clueless parents and their wily servant, Vispetta. True to its commedia roots, the principal ac...
Metro Detroit restaurant giant Vicari ready to slow down
Joe Vicari will head out early this Easter Sunday as he’s done on that holiday and most others since 1982 to greet his guests at Andiamo in Bloomfield and Detroit and six other Detroit eateries he owns to thank them for their business. He’ll also thank his employees for working the holiday, knowing the toll being away from family takes. The life of...
Italian Film Festival kicks off Wednesday with screening at the DFT
When “At War with Love” kicks off the Italian Film Festival at the Detroit Film Theatre on Wednesday, it will be a happy accident for educator Elena Past. The Wayne State University associate professor teaches a course called Mafia Movies, and the 2016 mix of comedy and drama is a perfect fit for it. “I scheduled the class long before this opening-...
Help Caliendo’s Band “cap off” 45th anniversary!
Caliendo’s Banda Napoletana is aiming to cap off its 45th anniversary year with new uniform hats for its musicians. One of the few authentic Italian festival bands left in America, the ensemble was launched by Raffaele Strocchia in 1926, and is now run by Strocchia’s cousin Marty Caliendo. “All of the years playing outdoors in virtually every type...