A new book by an Ames native is part love story, part cookbook and part local history.
“Tony's Little Italy: A Love Story and Recipe Book” is an ode to the popular Ames eatery from the 1960s and ‘70s, written by PJ “Jeff” Gaetano, whose family owned the business.
“It’s a love story about my parents, plus it’s a recipe book,” Gaetano said. “It’s filled with tons of pictures of them and the restaurants and our family.”
Gaetano grew up in Ames, graduating from high school in 1984 before attending Iowa State University and DMACC.
He currently lives in Burbank, California as a screenwriter and author, not far from his sister Pamela Sanders, who helped him test and scale the restaurant’s recipes.
Generating nostalgic memories
In 2010, Gaetano created a Facebook group, “Tony's Little Italy - Memories are as good as the Lasagna,” partly to help him with details for a creative writing project.
Group members enjoyed sharing their memories of Tony’s.
“They said things like, ‘I remember the wine bottles. I remember the fish tank,’” he said. “But mostly they remembered the food.”
They talked about their favorite dishes and suggested that Gaetano reopen the restaurant (which he is not doing) and asked for recipes.
The writer pivoted from his novel and focused on telling the story of his parents, Anthony Joseph Gaetano and Iva Marie Newton — how they met, fell in love, and got into the restaurant business.
Jeff Gaetano published the recipes, along with step-by-step photos of the cooking process for each recipe and photos of Tony’s hand-written recipes.
Now home cooks can recreate dishes such as Tony’s meat sauce, pizza dough, homemade sausage, lasagna, manicotti, appetizers and cocktails like the popular grasshopper.
“The book basically has every recipe on the restaurant’s menu,” Jeff Gaetano said. “There are about 30 recipes in all.”
Tony’s had locations in Ames, Nevada
Tony and Iva Gaetano opened their first Ames restaurant, Tony’s Little Italy, in May of 1961 in the 500 block of West Main Street, not far from where Aunt Maude’s is now.
In 1965, the restaurant moved to the corner of South Duff and South 16th Street, in the building that would become Hickory Park when Tony’s closed.
The Gaetano family lived in the house next door to the restaurant. Neither the home nor the restaurant building are still standing, making way for a larger Hickory Park and what is now Availa Bank.
“When I come back to Ames and stand in the place where my bedroom used to be, I’m standing in the parking lot of a bank,” Gaetano said. “But I still have the memories and the recipes.”
Tony's Wine Cellar also operated in Nevada from 1974 to 1979, located at 1337 Sixth St.
Jeff Gaetano shares a recipe from Tony’s Little Italy
Tony’s pizza dough
Makes (1) 12 inch pizza crust
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 packet .25 ounce instant yeast
¾ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons lard (I prefer Morrell Snow Cap Lard) (you can also use Olive Oil instead of Lard)
¾ cup warm water
Olive oil for coating
Combine 1 cup of flour, instant yeast, and salt in a large mixing bowl.
Add lard and warm water and stir extremely well with a wooden spoon.
Gradually add another 1 cup of the flour, stirring until the dough is forming into a cohesive, elastic ball and is beginning to pull away from the sides of the bowl. Add more flour if feel needed. The dough will still be slightly sticky but still should be manageable with your hands.
Using another large bowl drizzle with olive oil and brush up the sides of the bowl.
Lightly dust your hands with flour and form your pizza dough into a round ball and transfer to your olive oil- brushed bowl.
Use your hands to roll the pizza dough along the inside of the bowl until it is coated in olive oil, then cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and place it in a warm space.
Allow dough to rise for 30 minutes (it should double in size).
Once the dough has risen, use your hands to gently deflate it and transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead briefly until smooth (about 5 times).
Using either your hands or a rolling pin work the dough into a 12” circle.
(You can pinch the edges or fold them in a little to form a crust).
Tip: To prevent the pizza from bubbling, use a fork to poke holes all over the center.
You now have a crust ready for your pizza toppings, or you can keep making more and place them on top of each other separated with parchment paper.
**You can also pre-bake on a pizza stone for easy trimming and to have a more transferable crust to work with.
Ronna Faaborg covers business and the arts for the Ames Tribune. Reach her at rfaaborg@gannett.com.
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