On the surface, there’s nothing all that surprising to have painted portraits of an Italian mom and dad inside St. Paul’s Caffe Biaggio. “She was the mama of the neighborhood,” said John D’Agostino, talking about his mom Giovanna. She was legendary in the Twin Cities during the ’70s, as the owner of her homestyle Italian restaurant in the Dinkytown neighborhood.

“We used to joke that we should be a non-profit because she was giving away so much food to the University students,” D’Agostino said. “Mama” wrote a number of cookbooks, her antipasto salad with prosciutto and Italian beef was featured in Better Homes and Gardens, and she got booked as a guest on the old Mike Douglas show.