From Calabria with love: How the Taverniti family grew to be one of Toronto's Italian food institutions

Written By

Abhigyaan Bararia

almost 2 years ago

While many restaurant groups can trace back their history to the first establishment that they opened or maybe even to the time the founders formed a partnership, the Taverniti group's story has much deeper roots than that. Going back over 90 years to the south of Italy, where Rosina Taverniti, the matriarch, was born in Monasterace, Calabria, the family has had a long journey to become one of Toronto's staple destinations for Italian cuisine.

Rosina, whose recipes shine through at each of the four restaurants under the Taverniti umbrella, began her tryst with food through her father. Everything she saw her father do while cooking, she replicated. After spending 26 years in Calabria, getting married and fully realizing her passion for food, she made the trip west to Canada, arriving on a white Christmas in 1956.

And she did not come alone, for along with her also came a treasure trove of Calabrian recipes just waiting to be shared with Canadians. From gnocchi and lasagna to veal and tiramisu, all the Italian classics were passed onto her son, Domenic, and then spread among Torontonians through the restaurants.

As with any Italian family, cooking is one of the deepest expressions of love. Domenic experienced that love all through his childhood, waking up to the wonderful smell of her sauce and spending quality time eating with the family, with Sunday being the marquee Taverniti meal day.

"I loved her; she was an amazing cook," Domenic said. "Smelling her sugo [sauce] in the morning, with the pasta, the sausage, the meatballs, the veal, all that kind of stuff — just kind of woke me up automatically."

Anthony Taverniti (left) and Domenic Taverniti (right) pictured above.

As if by design, the same practices that made Rosina begin her tryst with food made her son fall in love with the art of cooking and feeding people.

"I just wanted everyone to experience what I experienced growing up — my mother's cooking. There were maybe 20 people that experienced my mother's cooking. She's not a chef by any chance. Like she's just a chef in her world that does her things perfectly," Domenic said. "And I want everyone in the street to experience what I experienced growing up. And hence the four restaurants. Because if it didn't work out for one, it wouldn't work out for the other three. And that's all I wanted."

The first of the four restaurants, Trattoria Taverniti, was opened more from the perspective of a son trying to help his mother rather than a person trying to make it into the food business.

Toward the end of Domenic's father's life, his mother had turned into a caregiver due to his father's illness. After his passing, Rosina fell into a depression-like funk. Around the same time, Domenic got presented with an opportunity in the Little Italy area to take over a restaurant space — which he pounced upon with great fervor. If for nothing else, then to keep his mother's passion for cooking alive.

"It wasn't ever her desire to open a restaurant; it was mine. But she just loved to cook," Domenic said. "We just used it to get out of her shell, out of her depression, out of her boredom. It was just like, 'Hey, you know what, Ma, I got an opportunity just to get you out of this phase, this funky phase.' And she was like, 'Yeah, let's go, let's do it.' And that's when we started Taverniti's."

It opened in 2011 and was almost an instant success. Based in Little Italy, on the street where Domenic grew up, it came about during a time when there was not much Italian about the neighbourhood besides its name. The introduction of Taverniti's kind of started the Italian renaissance in the area and gave rise to more restaurants serving the eponymous cuisine in that space.

One of the key components highlighting the restaurant's authenticity is the checkered cloth adorning each table. While the restaurant was doing just fine by itself in the beginning, adding that tiny detail ramped everything up.

"When I first opened Taverniti's, it was all about the richness of the food and what I want to bring. But then I thought that something was missing," Domenic said. I brought the food to the area. But something is missing in the atmosphere. I don't know what the hell it is."

The idea came to him while watching “Lady and the Tramp” with his daughter, Venezia, where he saw two dogs sharing spaghetti from one bowl. And something inside his brain just clicked.

"I'm like, whoa, it's over," he said. "The minute I put those tablecloths on, I kid you not, everything just skyrocketed."

After creating such a massive hit with nothing but sheer grit and determination, Domenic was already on the lookout for another space around 2014 to begin expanding the brand. His search bore no results, until late 2017 when he was presented with another great opportunity to open a restaurant on King Street.

While the space wasn't anything to phone home about right away, Domenic saw enough potential in it to take a chance and invest. He rode his motorcycle through the street while researching the area and noticed condos lining up on both sides of King, with people coming out of them and heading to fast food joints like McDonald's and Pizza Hut.

"I'm thinking, 'Man, like this isn't right.' A Big Mac combo would cost as much as a Penne Rosina or Spaghetti and Meatballs. And these are students. So what parents wouldn't want their kids to have a hearty meal instead of like a Big Mac?" Domenic said. "And then I said, 'You know what, let's do it.' So we turn that place around in four months."

And that's how Rosina's was born. With his mother's name on the banner, the second restaurant elevated the Taverniti family's stock to greater heights. People associated Rosina's with Taverniti's, and a large part of its initial success was due to the foundation that the first restaurant laid. With entry next to impossible over the weekend and even during the week at times, the public quickly took to Rosina's food, vibe and decor. The rest, as they say, is history.

Some might think that adding your mother's name — who taught you everything that you know — to the restaurant might be stressful and come with added pressure. The actual result was quite the opposite.

"It's more motivating. It pushes you to do better," Domenic's son Anthony said. "She was so happy when she saw that too. She'd always tell everybody, 'You know that my son opened up a restaurant for me with my name on it?' So I would say the opposite of pressure."

After moving from Little Italy to King Street, the family found another opportunity to expand back where it all started. Quite literally, they bought out the previous owners of a restaurant right next door to Trattoria Taverniti. Even though at the time Domenic didn't really need a third installment of the family business, he did so to create a stronger foundation and name.

"I didn't really need Tav's. I did it more to like cement our family's position in this neighbourhood. But it was a good overflow from the original OG," he said. "So basically, if you can't get in there (Taverniti's) you're gonna get in here (Tav's). And then we didn't want to do like two Taverniti's because we want like a different kind of niche but still from the same family, [with the] same feel."

He then mentioned how his mother, Rosina, made incredible gnocchi, which Anthony learned to a T. And that was how Tav's Gnocchi Bar was born with Anthony at its helm. While it still has the same general vibe that is so common within the Taverniti group of restaurants, Tav's decor lends itself to having a more modern and elevated vibe, while Taverniti's dwells within the realm of authentic and rustic Italian trattorias.

By now, it is clear that locations mean a lot to Domenic and the Taverniti group. From pitching up two restaurants on the street he grew up in to building up the neighbourhood around him on King Street, he puts in a lot of thought into the areas he wants to set up shop in. That's why the latest establishment, Taverniti North, which came about in mid-2022, means a lot to him and his family, as they live in the neighbourhood.

Domenic said that he wanted that particular location even before he wanted his second one at King, but the owner did not want to sell then. Finally, the circumstances worked in his favour and he pounced upon the opportunity. What came after was another huge hit from the Taverniti group.

"We became another neighbourhood gem — and it is even more special because we lived there all our lives. We know the area very, very well."

With four restaurants under the family name, Domenic said that one of the biggest struggles was trying to make them all different. Taverniti's is the one that feels most authentically Italian in its vibe and decor — from the music right down to the tablecloths.

Rosina's, placed in the heart of the Entertainment District, was built to have a more fast-paced environment with great food rather than just a sit-down restaurant. Domenic had the idea of providing the partygoers with a place serving delicious Italian food that won't break the bank. The party vibe of the restaurant was curated specifically to fit in with the neighbourhood, where people can eat, drink, make merry and then go paint the town whatever colour they desired.

Tav's exists more like a date spot. It is much more modern in its vibe and interiors. Sharp, clean decor that wonderfully complements the food it serves — gnocchi à la Anthony.

Taverniti's North, the latest installation, kind of mimics the vibe of the flagship restaurant in a lot of ways. But at the same time, the interiors of the place kind of pay homage to the rest of the three restaurants. One can see a mixture of all three upon entering — which is exactly the way it was built.

"It meant more to us, that place there. This is always the baby, but that place there, we want to bring this old school tradition home," Domenic said. "Back to our home. This is home, but that's real home. So now we're bringing home to home."

The Taverniti group has come a long way since the inception of its first restaurant. From building up Trattoria Taverniti in an area where Italy was just in the name to now having four restaurants under its belt, the family has become an institution for authentic Calabrese food in Toronto. And all of it came about through sheer hard work and determination.

"We are who we are because of the hard work that we did. Taverniti's was an impossibility. No one would have thought — family members, people in the area —that this guy would make it. We made it," Domenic said. "Second location, Rosina's, it was like, 'Whoa, you guys got lucky. It's a fluke.' Then we opened a third location, and they were like, 'Oh man, this guy's doing something right.'"

You know when you're good? You're good when you can take your restaurant to a secluded area.

The family, consisting of Domenic, Anthony, Venezia and Rosina— who sadly passed away last year — has worked together to see the success they're basking in now. They never wanted anyone else because adding more people leads to controversies and clashes, which is counterintuitive to progressing forward, Domenic said. Anthony was still in school and then university when the business first started, before slowly moving up the ranks to where he is now — handling all the operations alongside his father.

Growing up, he started by washing dishes in the kitchen before moving up to prep work, making pizzas and then finally learning how to handle the backend tasks that come with running a restaurant.

It's clear that even though he was virtually born into the business, he had to move through the chain and prove his chops. And he is very grateful to be given this opportunity to prove his worth and learn from his father and grandmother.

"He's the one that dug all the holes and went through what he had to go through. So I'm very fortunate for that," Anthony said. "My place was learning from him and my grandmother, right? They both brought two separate things to the table. And my job is to kind of, you know, bring them together."

And while there were many things that he learned from his father, like "catching the deal," how to properly supply a restaurant, having the right contacts and even waking up early — the one he struggled with the most — there were other things that Anthony said one could only learn by being physically present at the location.

"Just the little things that you can't get taught. You kind of have to just be there and witness it, experience it yourself," he said. "And so that's what I'm doing, right, just kind of learning from him. He paved the road and I'm driving in it."

While working with family can be a great way of bringing people together, it is also an invitation to bump heads from time to time over disagreements. And if you are as passionate about something as this Italian family is, those instances can come by quite often — even over the smallest of things.

Domenic said that he had to adapt to Anthony, who was fresh out of university, wanting to learn everything and even "thinking that he knows everything." In the beginning, it was a little tough for both parties, but eventually, they got into their groove and got used to the situation. They learned to defuse them together and remind themselves of their shared interest in putting out the best food possible.

"When you're working every day, you're bound to have some time for it," Anthony said. "He needs to move on from it and like you got to set your pride aside and just think about the common goal and work towards it."

Even though the father and son duo work in close proximity day in and day out, they don't consider each other coworkers one bit. It's always family first. Although they structure their weeks out and try to set agendas, due to the familial nature of their operations there are a lot of audibles called and things are changed on the fly. Even though that might sound chaotic to the outside person, it's a recipe that works for the Tavernitis and their four restaurants.

"We're so family oriented, we're like the Neanderthals of professional business," Domenic said. "Like complete Neanderthals. We don't have any set meetings."

Family is at the center of everything that happens in the Taverniti group. As mentioned earlier, even all the recipes being cooked and served to the people came from Rosina herself. Although they have seen tweaks and upgrades over the years, the foundation was built through her teachings.

"My mom taught me, in the beginning, the essentials," Domenic said. "A sugo, a sauce, is the staple of all the restaurants. It's that root. With sauce, you can create any type of pasta dish."

While all restaurants do the staples really well in their own way, the showstopper for the Taverniti group is their Penne Rosina. Consisting of a creamy pink/rosé sauce, n'duja sausage and hot soppressata, it's Domenic's favourite dish to eat by far at the restaurants and is equally loved by all kinds of visiting patrons.

"It's a particular dish that everyone in this country will try to duplicate. It's often imitated but never duplicated, but they all love it," he said. "I'll give it to you — every seating that we have, we'll probably do like 10 a day."

The kind of food the restaurants serve is authentic Calabrian, owing to the family's roots in Southern Italy. What makes Calabrian food so special is its freshness, richness and spiciness. It's not something you can get bored by, according to Domenic.

The food being served has to be just right, and that kind of vision also extends to the hiring process of the cooks and chefs who wish to work at the restaurants. All Domenic asks of them is to cook him a Spaghetti Carbonara and a Spaghetti Aglio é Olio — the basics which any chef should be able to make in their sleep.

"Whoever does perfect those dishes, you're hired," Domenic said. "So you can come from a Michelin star, five-star restaurant, whatever. If you can't make me a carbonara that I like, you're not hired."

Once you're hired, you instantly become a part of the Taverniti family. It's a place where owners care for their staff and try to do whatever they can for them in times of need. And that sparks the kind of loyalty and respect that everyone has for one other.

"Even if people come in here expecting it just to be like a quick in and out job, they end up falling in love with what we do," Anthony said. "And it's sad to have my grandmother pass away because she had a good connection with everybody. You know, her story, she would sit down and talk to you, and you would sit down and listen even if you had work to do."

As for the future, the sky is the limit for the family. That could mean more restaurants and even different countries. Whatever they desire.

One main thing, however, that the father-son duo plan on doing is obtaining a centralized space for all the prep work for the four restaurants. Until very recently, all major prep was done through just one kitchen. And that includes all the doughs for pizzas, gnocchi and even lasagna. That one centralized warehouse where all the prep happens will give the restaurants much-needed space to breathe and expand, making everyone's lives easier.

While there are plans and dreams of opening more restaurants to continue the legacy Rosina Taverniti left and even expanding into the United States, the thing holding them back is limited manpower. Since it's a project so close to them, they don't feel right in just opening another branch and giving it to someone else to run. They want to have either their selves there or someone that shares the same passion and commits fully.

"Even if we find another person, or two, that have the same passion and drive that we do that want to come work hands-on, we can really open up the floodgates," Domenic said.

The family's next venture is most likely taking them south of the border to America. Domenic believes they're done with Canada and wants to venture out globally. Florida is a strong contender for a restaurant since he has a lot of good friends living there that recognize his success with the restaurants in Toronto. Also, no one really associates authentic Italian food with the state of Florida — which gives the family a lot of market space to work with and build around.

A big part of the Taverniti group's modus operandi is building up neighbourhoods around their restaurants. That is something they want to continue with through their expansions abroad. They pay attention to the surroundings and like growing alongside the communities in a symbiotic relationship — if one grows, the other grows along with it.

That is why they don't look for areas that are already busy with a lot of footfall. Instead, they pay attention to hidden locations and bring those to the forefront.