Family Values and Big Ideas Keep Colletti’s ‘Fresh’ After 80 Years

by EDDIE RYBARSKI

Black-and-white photos and vintage menus hung from exposed brick walls tell the story of Colletti’s — a long-time neighborhood restaurant and private party venue located at the intersection of Elston and Central avenues.

One photo in particular shows where it started: a young Nicholas Colletti, the child of an immigrant family from southern Italy, who co-founded the restaurant as “El-Centro” (a portmanteau of the aforementioned street names) with his brother Rocco in 1946.

80 years later, much has changed. But for all that has changed, one family remains at the center of it all. Owned by Rick Colletti and operated by his son Rocky Colletti and an experienced management team, the restaurant is still a family-run operation after four generations. Rick, along with his now-retired brother Bob, took over from their father Rocco (the son of Nicholas) in 1990. Of course, his experience with the business goes back much further than that.

“My mother and father raised Bob and I in the apartment above the restaurant,” said Rick Colletti. “I always worked at the restaurant. Before I was a teenager, we would be in here cleaning. Then I was a busboy in my early teens. Then a pizza maker, a cook, a bartender, a manager — I did everything here.”

In 1980, Rick had a decision to make. He was going to either become an electrician or stay working at the restaurant. At the same time, his father Rocco also had a decision to make. Rocco’s brother and co-owner Dominic was dealing with health challenges and stepping away from the business. Rocco could either buy out Dominic and continue with the business, or just let the restaurant go.

“I decided to forgo the apprenticeship program and stick with my dad,”  Colletti said. “I wasn’t thinking about owning the place at that point, I just decided I’m gonna stick with dad.”

Rick’s brother Bob, who had been working for Lettuce Entertain You, chose to rejoin the family business and do the same. Together, the next generation of Colletti brothers worked with their father to ensure that the restaurant would continue to serve the community.

“I always looked at it as family values. It had been in the family and it was a tradition on the northwest side. It was starting to turn into a staple of the community,” Colletti said. “I always felt like Colletti’s had a place in the neighborhood and without Colletti’s here it wouldn’t be this neighborhood. But I always felt like we could improve.”

That drive to do better is directly connected to the evolution of the restaurant.

“I always had a vision for more,” Colletti said. “The patio, the bar renovations, the banquet room — it was all [in my head]… it was just like we had to do it. And we did it.”

Since that time, the business once housed in a tavern-style building with a front entrance on Central Avenue, has grown in virtually all directions. To the north, an “El Fresco” garden patio built in the 1970s transitioned into a paved carry-out pick-up lot in the early 1980s. That carry-out area then gave way to the build-out of two banquet rooms and a banquet kitchen in 2000. A new carry-out entrance was added to the east at the same time.

In 2013, the restaurant’s bar was completely renovated, and a spacious outdoor patio and bar was created to the south. And to the west, the name on the building has evolved — from “El-Centro” or “Colletti’s El-Centro” in the early days to just “Colletti’s” in the early ’80s.

Looking forward, Rick Colletti hopes that the continued enhancement of his patio and new marketing ideas will allow the restaurant to serve the community for another generation or more.

In a typical calendar year, Colletti’s offers special themed menus such as “Season of Seafood” during spring, “Ribfest” during the early summer, “Hawaiian Nights” during the late summer (pre-empted by the “80th Anniversary Celebration” $19.46 Throwback Menu this year), and “Oktoberfest” during the fall. Of course, the winter holiday season keeps them plenty busy as well.

“We attempt to keep it fresh at all times,” Colletti said, invoking the restaurant’s Keeping Tradition Fresh tagline. “That’s what our goal is — to make sure we’re not forgotten.”

Keeping a business young at heart for 80 years is no easy feat, but in doing so Colletti believes it helps him remain that way as well.

“I love the business. I love the people. The customers,” says Colletti. “I love to cook — to create. It just kinda grows on ya. It’s in my blood.”

Editor’s Note: Eddie Rybarski worked for Colletti’s as a server, delivery driver and pizza maker. He holds a B.A. in Journalism and has worked as a multimedia journalist and television news photographer / editor. He currently works full-time as a marketing copywriter.

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