Frank Giacomelli
Obituary
Frank Giacomelli, founder of La Villa Deli, died April 9
Eatery has been a fixture in WG area for more than 50 years
By Jim Aquino
One of Ann Giacomelli's fondest memories of running Willow Glen's La Villa Deli with her husband, Frank, was any time when a school kid would come up to the deli's steam table and ask for "a bucket of worms and a bottle of blood."
"That meant a little half pint of spaghetti and a bottle of strawberry soda," Ann says.
The Giacomellis were such memorable Lincoln Avenue fixtures that when some of those kids with a hankering for "worms and blood" would visit the deli decades later as adults, they would often ask La Villa's present co-owner, Dave Bertucelli, about the Giacomellis, who had sold their business to Ed and Rita Palestro in 1967.
"Up until when Frank was sick, people still asked, 'Have you seen Ann and Frank? How's Frank doing?' I run into people all the time saying, 'I remember when he used to cook me lunch when I was going to San Jose State,' " Bertucelli says.
On April 9, Frank Giacomelli died in San Jose of natural causes. He was 84. Meanwhile, the business that Frank began with Ann more than five decades ago continues to thrive as one of Willow Glen's longest-lasting and most beloved eateries.
However, when the couple first opened La Villa, they knew very little about running a delicatessen and were afraid La Villa wasn't going to last.
"Neither one of us knew a thing about the delicatessen business. We had been brought up in Italian families, where making ravioli, spaghetti and meatballs was a daily requirement. We really ventured into something that was very foreign to the two of us," Ann says.
Before La Villa, Frank--who was born Christmas Day 1917 in San Jose and was the first American-born child in a family that came from the Italian cities of Lucca and Pisa--originally worked for the sheet metal department at Ames Labs in Moffett Field. As for Ann, her previous job was at the Kress five-and-dime store in downtown San Jose.
Ann recalls that while Frank worked for Ames, he had dreams of going into business for himself. Her brother, who lived in Willow Glen, suggested to Frank that he open a deli in the area, which the Giacomellis did at 1319 Lincoln Avenue in October 1947.
"Lincoln Avenue was just about a block long at that time. There were several markets and a jewelry store, I think. It wasn't very big," Ann says. "The parking was pretty bad because there were some streets that weren't even paved. It was really rural at the time."
As downtown Willow Glen grew, La Villa Deli became best known for its homemade-style items, especially ravioli, a Christmastime dinner table staple for Frank's family and his in-laws.
"It was a traditional thing in Italian families at the time," Ann says.
Today, thanks to the Giacomellis, ravioli has become a holiday tradition for San Joseans as well. Every holiday season, the deli attracts long lines of customers who want cartons of ravioli for Christmas dinner.
"We made wonderful friends with our customers. They were faithful to us to the very end," says Ann, who, with Frank, sold La Villa to the Palestro family in 1967. "After 25 years, we felt we were burning ourselves out by leading a life of just working 12 to 16 hours a day. We thought, 'Well, we better try to get out of this and see if we can live [normally] for the rest of our lives.' "
The Palestros owned the deli for 20 years before selling it to Dave Bertucelli and his wife, who often ate at La Villa as teens. The Bertucellis had their first date at the deli.
In 1997, the deli celebrated its 50th anniversary with an all-day festival. Bertucelli recalls asking the Giacomellis to make an appearance at the birthday celebration.
"They were hemming and hawing about coming down when I called them. They said, 'Yeah, we'll come by for a little while in the early afternoon,' " Bertucelli says. "They ended up staying here from noon until six at night because there were so many people who wanted to talk to them and they were just having a ball."
Ann says that when she and Frank were reunited with their older customers at the 50th celebration, they couldn't recognize them at first.
"A lot of these so-called children were grown up, with children of their own. It was really wonderful to see them. They still remembered us. It was a pleasant day," Ann says.
The Giacomellis were friends of Bertucelli's parents and grandparents.
"Frank was just a great, kind man-very eager to please everybody. He was happy when people were eating his food," Bertucelli says.
Frank is survived by Ann, his older sister, Yolanda Della Maggiore, who lives with her daughter in Morgan Hill, and various nieces and nephews. Funeral services have been held.
Ann recalls that she and Frank had a great relationship, both in marriage and working behind the deli counter.
"We never lost sight of each other because we worked all those hours shoulder to shoulder. We got along beautifully," Ann says. "Sometimes in ordering, he would want to order something special, and I would think that maybe we shouldn't have or vice versa. But that never amounted to anything. That's why we got along so beautifully. I just miss him desperately."
Willow Glen, California Since 1992
