Star power of Antola’srecalled decades later

Danny Thomas, the 1950s movie and television star, had a very prodigious nose. If a guy has a nose like that, he must learn to use it to his advantage. To make jokes about it. Sometimes, he might allow others to use his nose, too.

The night Danny Thomas came into Antola’s Restaurant, an Italian restaurant on Highway 99 in Merced, and ordered something from the menu, he made an offer to owners Pietro and Lina Antola. “Put a big picture of me on a billboard and a caption that says ‘Follow my nose to Antola’s,’ ” Thomas said.

And so Pietro and Lina did just that. For three years, the billboard on old Highway 99 directed travelers to Antola’s Restaurant. The place was a mainstay of fine dining in Merced for 20 years, with a menu listing 119 items, all fresh and made to order. Because Antola’s was on the highway, it attracted an out-of-town crowd in addition to Merced diners. Other celebrities, including Roy Rogers’ sidekick Gabby Hayes, were known to eat there.

“The restaurant was always crowded, always busy,” recalls Mimi Cyr, one of three daughters in the Antola family.

Lina, a native of Milan, and Pietro, who was born and raised in Genoa, met at a party in San Francisco. They married 10 days later. For a while, they owned and operated Bruno’s Restaurant, which is still in business, in the Mission District. In 1955, the couple bought Monty’s Barbecue in Merced, located on Highway 99 before the highway was re-routed and became 16th Street, and turned it into Antola’s, which featured the cuisine of Genoa, a seaport city in northwest Italy renowned for its pesto, fish dishes, pastries and, of course, pasta.

The Antolas remodeled, furnishing the new Fontana Room with flocked wallpaper, French provincial chairs with purple upholstery and chandeliers imported from Czechoslovakia. Stephanie Lucich, who remembers Antola’s as the place where her family went for special occasions, recalls the marble floor and counter in the bathroom. There was a fountain in the entrance and the fireplace in the bar had a brass hood inscribed with an A.

It is still possible to purchase postcards of Antola’s online. One shows the Fontana Room, the brass fireplace hood in the background. The carpet is a pattern of green and pink squares alternating with squares of white and black. The tables are covered in white linen, a white carnation in a vase on each one. A large doorway is trimmed in dark wood, and a mural depicts a cityscape of Italy.

“It was beautiful,” says Mimi. “I have to say that my parents did a really good job. It was top of the line for those times.”

Pietro was the chef, Lina the hostess and cashier. Their son Peter worked in the kitchen and waited tables. Daughters Sandra and Gloria were waitresses.

“I worked in the kitchen,” says Mimi. “I was 10 years old when I started. I was really close to my dad, and that’s where I wanted to stay, but he kept telling me I needed to wait tables and make more money. So finally one day I went out and bought a uniform and came home and put it on the kitchen table. ‘Oh,’ my mom and dad said, ‘now she’s ready to make money.’ I did everything eventually – waitressed, tended bar.”

Mimi worked at Antola’s until it closed in 1975. By then, Pietro was in his 70s and Lina was around 60. They were tired. Running any small business is hard work, and running a restaurant is probably the most taxing of all small business enterprises.

But Lina and Pietro left some powerful memories behind. Customers such as Stephanie still remember the veal scaloppini, one of the most popular dishes at Antola’s. She remembers that Fridays meant clam chowder. She remembers the family, some of whom went to school with her sister. Most of all, she remembers that going to Antola’s was an occasion. You dressed up for it. You planned to spend some time there. Everything about it – the chandeliers, the fireplace, the linens, the fountain in the entry – indicated that dining at Antola’s was an event, something to be savored.

This story was originally published September 18, 2015 at 2:50 PM with the headline "Star power of Antola’srecalled decades later."