Angelo’s on Federal Hill Celebrates 100 Years in Business
Angelo's is celebrating its 100th anniversary this weekend with a series of events happening today through Sunday, and one reader shares her fondest memories of the institution.
Meatballs and fries at Angelo’s. Photo by Angel Tucker.
Angelo’s is celebrating its 100th anniversary this weekend with a series of events happening today through Sunday, including continuous birthday cake, grape stomping, pasta-making, live music and more. See the bottom at this article for the full schedule of events.
Classic comfort food Italian dishes done well is what Angelo’s is all about. The portions have always been large, the prices are cheap and the focus is family. When the weather is chilly and you’re looking for something to warm your belly, dig into a heaping plate of chicken parmesan or slow-cooked all-day veal and peppers. Everyone feels like friends and family at Angelo’s, whether you’re Italian or just wishing you were. Communal tables seat multiple generations and sports fans watching games, while the lounge appeases anyone waiting for a seat. Historical photos decorate the dining room alongside accolades like proof of a visit from Guy Fieri. Serving traditional Italian cooking for 100 years, there’s a reason the third-generation restaurant hasn’t had to change much on the Classics menu since 1924. Favorites include breaded and fried chicken parm or eggplant parm smothered in mozzarella and housemade sauce, and good old meatballs served with fries instead of pasta for an even better way to soak up homemade gravy. During the Great Depression, the original owner, Angelo Mastrodicasa, invited folks who were in need to come eat and he added fries to their plates to help tide them over to their next meal. The tradition continues today.
In honor of Angelo’s 100th anniversary, Rhode Island Monthly is inducting Angelo’s into its Best of Rhode Island Hall of Fame for 2024.
The author, Mary Narvell.
Here is an essay about Angelo’s from one loyal guest and writer, Mary Lioce-Narvell, who grew up going to Angelo’s more than fifty years ago.
“Cent Anni” is the greeting in Italian to wish someone 100 years. Usually it is aspirational, a kind of benediction that you will have the good fortune to attain this milestone. But it seems that Angelo’s Civita Farnese has indeed done just that. Surviving one hundred years is no mean accomplishment, but especially so in the notoriously difficult restaurant trade requiring dedicated owners willing and able to cater to the evolving tastes of demanding customers.
Maybe that is the magic of Civita (“Chee-vee-taa”) as my family called it. It delivered a reliable staple that withstood changing tastes. A plate of “home mades” (noodles) and a side dish of meatballs or sausage are a security blanket for many, especially Americans of Italian descent like me. It is comforting to know the meal you don’t want to cook for yourself will be ready and waiting for you there.
If you read my 2022 article about Civita’s neighbor, the Old Canteen, you could be forgiven for thinking all my family did was eat on Federal Hill! Maybe, as I reflect on those happy memories, we did. But just as Joe Marzilli was our host for special occasions, Angelo’s was our weeknight choice after work and school to just relax and eat delicious “home cooked” food. The formula was simple and that was its genius and apparent success. One large dining room where you sometimes had to patiently wait in line for entry. Fluorescent lights illuminating center tables or window booths overlooking Atwells Avenue traffic. Paper placemats and a scrubbed clean linoleum floor. Familiar waiters and, in those old days, one waitress who almost didn’t need to take your order.
Regulars always made the usual choice. But if you wanted to try something different, there was the menu ruling above the dining room – almost a holy book posted on all four sides of the center column and with letters inserted on grooved grids spelling out the offerings. Everything an Italian American family would expect was there – those staples now referred to in a more chi-chi “cucina povera” terminology. Soup, pasta and meatballs, sausage, veal cutlet, escarole, even the exotic tripe. No special sauces like carbonara or alfredo in those days. Angelo’s was all about tomato sauce, the ragu that wives and grandmothers were grateful for not having slaved over their stoves that week to prepare.
Chicken parm at Angelo’s. Photo by Angel Tucker.
Civita wasn’t a place to linger. The idea was to eat at a substitute kitchen table that made you feel you were eating at home. Family life unfolded over those meals in all their wholesomeness as well as tension. I vividly remember, as an impressionable child, listening to a husband and wife argue, forgetting they were in public. It was an early memorable lesson that home didn’t always mean harmony. No special dining etiquette here.
It also wasn’t only families that were attracted to Angelo’s. Brown University and RISD students soon learned upon arriving in Providence that this Federal Hill gem could cater to their tight budgets and a need for comfort food. It was standard practice, in fact, to find almost anyone eating at Civita from the original audience of working men sharing a table to neighborhood and Rhode Island VIPs. This was the watering hole of choice when what you needed was convenient, tasty Italian food, frill free. The reverberating clatter of forks and plates was a soothing chorus while you expectantly watched the window opening to the kitchen for your meal to appear. Angelo’s Civita Farnese was every day food as fuel, familiarity and tradition.
Of course, the restaurant has evolved since the 1960s and ’70s, of which I fondly reminisce. Gone is that central unadorned space in favor of a bar around which a model train circulates and a color scheme to replace the old monochrome beige. The clientele feels a bit more upscale. Who or what doesn’t change after 100 years? But my memories remain happily stalled when Angelo’s Civita Farnese was barely fifty and already an institution. Far away as I am now, living in London, England, I still miss those “home mades” and my meatball side served, somewhat inexplicably, with french fries. The taste of home never goes stale or cold but remains warm. Cent Anni, Civita e Buon Appetito to all!
Mary Narvell is a Rhode Island native now living in the United Kingdom. She is a graduate of the Lincoln School and Wellesley College.
Angelo’s 100th Celebration Schedule of Events:
Friday, April 5
11:30 a.m.: Angelo’s opens.
Noon: Official kickoff to the anniversary weekend, including speeches from owner Jamie Antignano and politicians, open to the public. Giveaway announced.
12:15 p.m.: Live music begins.
12:30 p.m.: Cigar roller arrives.
Ongoing: Birthday cake served all day.
9 p.m.: Angelo’s closes.
Saturday, April 6
11:30 a.m.: Angelo’s opens.
Noon: Live music and grape stomping begins. Bevi e vivi beverage trailer to also arrive (on sidewalk), serving mocktails.
4 p.m.: Grape stomping ends.
Ongoing: Birthday cake served all day.
9 p.m.: Angelo’s closes.
Sunday, April 7
Noon: Angelo’s opens and live music begins.
1-5 p.m.: Pasta making station with Litl Rhody Pasta Co.
Ongoing: Birthday cake served all day.
8 p.m.: Giveaway winners are chosen and Angelo’s closes.
