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When people ask why I started Café Amore in Edmonton, the answer is always an easy one: Edmonton is my home.

I came to Edmonton in 1964 from Italy. I was 14 ½ years old and, like many immigrants, my parents brought me and my four siblings to Canada for a better life.

It was a good move.

I got started in the restaurant business early. At age 14, I worked as a busboy at the Sheraton downtown. I was the first Italian busboy they ever had, and soon I was their first Italian Head Busboy, too! Eventually I went into business for myself, and I have owned a few restaurants over the years, both here in Edmonton and the Okanagan.

Right now, I own Café Amore in the Delton neighborhood with my two sons, Cristo and Nick, and I couldn’t be prouder of them. We worked so hard for six months to get this place ready, and on March 17^th, 2011, we opened. We have been hopping ever since.

The name was an easy choice. Café Amore – because everyone should be in love! And there is a lot of love going on here at our place. People come in here all the time – from 11:00a.m. when we open until late at night, I am never alone here. Customers from the neighborhood walk over to see us everyday, the rest drive here from across town!

I work here with my two sons. My job is the cooking and menu planning. I get up early every morning to get started on the sauces for the day, and because we do everything fresh here, I am out shopping every few days, too. My girlfriend handles the soups, though. Her soups are so wonderful, we call her the “The Soup Lady!”

We started Café Amore in the Delton neighborhood because this is where I grew up in Edmonton. I remember Delton as being a very European neighborhood when I was a young man, now it is even more multicultural. Edmonton has put a lot of money into the development of 118th Avenue, just a few blocks away from us, and it shows. There are people from all over the world living here now.