How has Belleville been for your business?

"It's been good. Every year, business gets better. We've been able to do some remodeling and some redecorating inside. Things are moving along well."

How did you become a restaurateur?

"I started in the bospitality business 20 years ago in hotels, and food and beverage operations within hotels. From that point, I kind of progressed through the ranks in different hotel companies and different chains. And then, I decided that I got tired of traveling all of the time. I had three kids at home, a wife, and my kids were growing up, and I wasn't around to see them grow up. So my wife said, 'You need to get off of the road.' And I said, 'Well, what should I do?' and she said, 'Why don't you buy a hotel?' I didn't quite have enough money to buy a hotel, so she said, 'Let's do a restaurant.' And I said, 'OK.' I do know about the restaurant business. W scouted locations and looked at both sides of the river and ended up coming here to the Belleville location because we liked a lot of different factors, including the traffic count, the free-standing building, the open-floor plan and there was plenty of parking.

What's the story behind Nonna's?

"That is Italian for 'grandma.' And if you look at our menu, we have both traditional American fare as well as Italian fare. And the Italian items are from my wife's nonna, her grandmother, her recipes, from the meatballs, the sauces and salad dressing. We thought, let's just call it Nonna's in a tribute to her."

What are your most popular menu items?

"Probably our top three sellers are our house salad, our broaster chicken and our pasta con broccoli."

Why Belleville?

"I was born and raised in St. Louis. However, I had a lot of exposure here, on the east side, working in the hotel business So I knew this market almost better than I knew the St. Louis market and was very comfortable over here and knew a lot of people, and that's why we settled over here."

Q&A By Will Buss
wbuss@bnd.com