Il Camino Italian Restaurant in Leominster has been serving nonni’s sauce for 50 years

LEOMINSTER — Louis Daigneault was 7 years aged when he learned how to bread veal on leading of tomato bins in the cozy kitchen of Il Camino Italian Cafe, and his older brother, Rick, was 12 when he and their other siblings had been experienced in making selfmade pasta.

© T&G Team/Rick Cinclair
LEOMINSTER – Cook Darlene Keefe scoops up a serving of sauce in the kitchen area at Il Camino Tuesday, December 29, 2020.

“We ended up fantastic at cracking eggs,” Rick Daigneault recalled previous week.

In 1970, the Daigneaults’ parents, Jack and Frances (Ciccolini), obtained the Italian cafe on 555 Central St. from Attilio and Ilda Antonioni. After a shorter interval of changeover, Il Camino opened under the Daigneaults’ possession on Jan. 2, 1971, and has been a town staple due to the fact.

For the last 10 months, the restaurant has endured the difficulties of COVID-19, and this earlier weekend, the family members proudly marked 50 a long time in enterprise.

Over five decades, the Daigneaults have welcomed their faithful company in a friendly and familiar atmosphere with longtime and committed workers, whilst satiating buyers with traditional Italian favorites.

The red sauce served atop the selfmade spaghetti and chicken parmigiana is the recipe the Daigneaults’ nonni, Lucy Ciccolini, introduced with her from Italy and lovingly passed down to her grandchildren.

The menu attributes several of Lucy’s initial recipes, as perfectly as the very well-known hen piccata that Chris Daigneault, one more of Rick’s and Louis’ brothers, modified from a relatives recipe.

Louis’ preferred menu item, not astonishingly, is the veal cutlet parmigiana, “with a facet of selfmade huge noodles,” he reported.

The meatballs and selfmade Italian salad dressing are also tasty.

By the years, not much has modified in Il Camino’s homey setting, a fitting concept specified it’s name, which translates to, “the fire.” The cafe started accepting credit playing cards in 2007. The kitchen and storage location had been expanded, and quite a few gluten-totally free objects have been included to the menu.

As chain eating places have sprouted up in the region, consistency and loyalty have sustained Il Camino. Clients know what they will get, they adore it, and they hold returning.

“It’s the very same food stuff, my grandmother’s recipes and the same family atmosphere,” Rick claimed. “People realize this is a relatives cafe it’s not connoisseur. When we to start with opened, nearby households truly, really supported us. At the stop of just about every food, young ones get a Hershey bar and then individuals young ones expand up and occur back again and their little ones get a Hershey bar, and it is a beneficial domino outcome of families coming back again and coming back.

“Our staff members are loyal. Most people gets what it takes to operate a family enterprise.”

The 6 Daigneault siblings, Jack, Rick, Chris, Tom, Louis and Maryellen, all labored at Il Camino as young children. Chris and Louis have worked at the cafe full time for just about 40 a long time.

Rick, Tom and Maryellen keep on to aid out as “weekend warriors.” Their father, now 87, stepped back again from the complete-time procedure about two or a few a long time ago, Rick explained. Their mother handed absent in 1982 at age 48.

© T&G Team/Rick Cinclair
Longtime customer James Moran, still left, of Clinton, talks with Il Camino worker Ashley Donahoo even though purchasing a container of sauce last 7 days in Leominster. Moran claimed he arrives to Il Camino at least when a 7 days.

During lunch time past Tuesday, a handful of patrons popped in to pick up to-go orders at Il Camino, which shifted back to takeout only when the condition limited restaurant potential to 25% on Dec. 26.

“Takeout has saved us,” Rick explained.

 “Il Camino” indicates fireplace in Italian and the restaurant’s authentic is the focal position of the major eating room, which is usually loaded with hungry buyers, especially on bustling Friday and Saturday evenings, but was certainly vacant final Tuesday afternoon. Il Camino can seat 120 individuals, Rick claimed.

In the lesser dining area, identified as the Eco-friendly Room, chairs ended up stacked off to the side. Il Camino also has a lounge.

“On weekends just before COVID, we ordinarily had five cooks,” Louis mentioned, “and servers functioning again and forth among the kitchen area and eating room with all these distinctive dishes.”

© T&G Employees/Rick Cinclair
Louis Daigneault talks about working his family’s cafe.

Rick reported company is down 20- to 30% around the very last 12 months. The restaurant’s catering small business and present card sales have notably endured, and, without dine-in, staff members, regretably, has been scaled back again.

“We went by a roller coaster due to the fact COVID strike,” Rick explained.

But Il Camino has persevered.

Thanks to COVID limits, the Daigneaults weren’t able to host a golden anniversary celebration at Il Camino this weekend, but at 1 p.m. Jan. 11, Leominster mayor Dean J. Mazzarella is halting by the restaurant for a specific proclamation, and Il Camino will commemorate its milestone with 50th anniversary glassware, mugs and T-shirts.

Every single 50th buyer will get their option of an item.

“Chris and I have been working right here eternally, but I can not think it is 50 many years,” Louis said. “You think of all the folks who have been right here and all the individuals who are long gone, unfortunately.”

© T&G Workers/Rick Cinclair
Brothers Rick and Louis Daigneault in the dining room at their Il Camino Italian Cafe past week in Leominster.

This post initially appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Il Camino Italian Restaurant in Leominster has been serving nonni’s sauce for 50 several years