Photograph by Paul Myers
Ralph Di Tullio owns Nonno's, a take-and-bake pizza place and cafe in Redwood Estates. Di Tullio says that his clientele has changed in the 25 years he has catered events in the mountains. He describes his current customers as less rugged, much richer and more demanding of convenience.
Nonno's food reflects modern as well as traditional flavors
By Suzanne Cristallo
Nonno's is a take-and-bake pizza place. But in the morning, it's a commuter cafe where locals can grab a cup of espresso and a fresh-baked muffin before hitting the highway. On Friday and Saturday nights, they return to get their share of the meats that sizzle on an outdoor barbecue, sending up puffs of smoke with the woodsy smell of charcoal.
It's a little place, and it's tucked away in "downtown Redwood Estates," a one-time resort community between Los Gatos and the Summit. It's just across the street from the post office and general store, which make up practically the entire town.
Nonno's is many things to the faithful customers who go there three and four times a week from the surrounding mountain community. They partake of the hearty food Ralph Di Tullio cooks up. But they also come to soak up a sense of community that bigger places are losing fast. Big, big trucks are parked out front alongside BMWs, Lexuses and Mercedes, driven by folks perhaps unaccustomed to a small, rural place until the lack of land in the valley drove them to seek property in the mountains.
It's unlike the crowd Di Tullio was used to seeing in the 25 years he has catered events in the mountains. "People want more services now," he reflects. "In the early days, they wanted escape." He says his customers today are less rugged, much richer and more demanding of convenience.
"There have been some big changes since I opened here four years ago," notes Di Tullio, whose business was mainly take-home pizzas and catering and now is booming in all areas. "At first, my customers were the old-timers--the mountain folks. Then they were the dot-comers--who have moved away to find work. And finally, they're the richer folks who can afford to stay."
Di Tullio says he made changes in his business to accommodate the changing crowd, like the commuter breakfast with breakfast burritos, pastries and doughnuts from Santa Cruz and the espresso bar. He also added the barbecue he offers Wednesday through Saturday nights, serving as many as 100 meals on the weekend. On a patio he built outside, he cooks Italian sausage and tri-tip steak sandwiches for under $3.50, including soda, and baby back ribs, steaks and half-chickens for under $10, including two side dishes.
Di Tullio created a Thai chicken pasta salad as a special side dish to augment the chili beans, potato salad and coleslaw he offers. To penne pasta, he adds diced chicken breast, cilantro, green onions, peanuts, sesame seeds and peanut butter dressing.
"Some construction guys stay and eat on the premises, but mostly they want to take it home to eat," he adds, noting that many Redwood Estates homeowners are remodeling and upgrading their homes, but few people, it seems, have time to cook.
Di Tullio's pizzas also reflect the times. Among the most popular are the Sopranos, named for the highly successful television series. There's also the Tony, with eggplant, sausage, olives, artichokes and red onion; the Carmella, with tomato, artichoke, olives, red onion and eggplant; and the Junior, with tomato, linguica, sausage, red peppers and garlic.
Next month, Di Tullio, his wife Elizabeth and daughter Andrea are traveling to northern Italy for a month to visit the town where Elizabeth's grandfather, Aldo Andriatta, was born. Nonno's (grandfather in Italian) was named after him.
Nonno's, 21433 Broadway, Los Gatos, is open Monday through Friday, 6:30-11 a.m.; Saturday, 8-11 a.m.; Wednesday and Thursday, 4-8 p.m.; and Friday and Saturday, 4-8:30 p.m. For more information, call 408.353.5633.
Saratoga, California Since 1955
