Toluca is a city of less than 1,500 citizens, and yet it has twin Italian restaurants of wide renown located within a short city block of each other. When you mention it to someone not from central or north-central Illinois, they tend to give you a suspicious, doubtful look. That’s only because they’ve never been to Mona’s or Capponi’s.

Mona’s – the original, founded in 1933 by Nildo “Mona” Bernardi – eventually led to neighboring Capponi’s (opened in 1934 and a down-the-street competitor until 1965), Bernardi’s (2001 in Washington), Bernardi’s II (2005 in Pontiac) and Bernardi’s Pub and Italian Eatery (2008 in Dunlap) all becoming part of the Bernardi Italian Restaurants family.