Known in Italy as La Gioconda, which means “the happy one”, Leonardo da Vinci’s most famously acclaimed portrait is the Mona Lisa. Interestingly, Mona is a contraction of the formal form Madonna, the equivalent to Madam or My Lady in English.
While Leonardo’s original masterpiece hangs in the Louvre Museum in Paris, you won’t have to go that far to find her; her painting also appears on the wall as the centerpiece in her namesake restaurant in Little Italy, family owned and operated by brothers, John, Domenic and Benny Brunetto.
Located on the southeast corner of India and Hawthorne Streets in Little Italy, is an Italian family restaurant and deli, but also a cornerstone landmark that celebrates its 40th anniversary this year on June 6.
After WWII circa 1950, the brothers’ father, Stefano Brunetto migrated from Aspra, province of Palermo, Sicily, to San Diego and met his future wife from San Benedetto del Tronto, province of Ascoli Piceno, Marche in Tijuana, Mexico while visiting. They married and settled down in Little Italy and had five children. Three boys: John, Domenic, Benny; and two younger girls: Dorothy and Emma were all born and raised in Little Italy. Literally, true native Little Italians!
In 1956, Stefano opened his first Italian restaurant with his brother in downtown San Diego which lasted for about five years. Then, after a spell of tuna fishing on the boats, he returned in 1966, and built a restaurant in Chula Vista and later, acquired two other restaurants; one in Allied Gardens, the other in Clairemont Mesa.
The three brothers recall being children in middle school where at an early age, they intrinsically understood the sacrifice of family and the need for them to work in the restaurant by washing dishes on crates and kneading dough by hand on the weekend while their friends were out playing ball.
They joke about the time that when as kids, upon receiving their first paycheck from their father of approximately $14, they each had to sign the back of their checks and hand them back over as a contribution! At least they claim, the unlimited soda fountain and pizza made up for it.
They also share fond memories of being kids growing up in Little Italy where they would skateboard down the steep Kalmia Street Hill, play in Maple Street Canyon, or swing from a rope tied under the First Avenue Bridge.
In the early 70s, they sold the restaurants in Chula Vista and Clairemont Mesa, and bought the present day location in 1973, and each brother became equal partners.
Benny explains, “Forty years ago back in 1973, Little Italy was a light industrial area, blighted, in a state of decline after the construction of Interstate 5 earlier which had decimated much of the neighborhood and drove away many Italian families. There wasn’t much around besides Our Lady of the Rosary Church, and the only retail businesses were Solunto’s Baking Company, Filippi’s Pizza Grotto, and Mona Lisa.
“In the beginning, we started selling wholesale to restaurants and fishermen in the tuna industry. As times changed, we phased out wholesale and retail took over, geared toward 80% of Italian families, we maintained competitively priced new products providing good value.”
Many people wonder and ask the Brunettos, “How do you do it? How do you remain brothers and partners after all these years?”
One only needs to look, for the answer can be found on the walls of the restaurant, where family portraits and pictures depict the family lineage and history. Benny responds, “It’s all family. Family values, now entering the third generation. We are a Little Italy family, running a family restaurant with the family still involved.”
Like La Gioconda who smiles endlessly in her portrait on the wall behind them, John, Domenic, and Benny forty years later, can smile long with Mona Lisa and be “the happy ones” too.
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