+1 (309) 688-8200

ONE FAMILY • ONE LOCATION • SINCE 1926

A BRIEF HISTORY Our Great-Grandfather Vincenzo (James) Agatucci immigrated to the United States from Calascio (AQ) Italy in 1904 with a dream. After many years of hard work on the coal mining circuit between Pennsylvania and Central Illinois, James moved to Peoria along with his wife Teresa and their seven children to open a small “mom and pop” grocery store on Second Street in the early 1920’s. In 1926, he took a chance and purchased our current building on a dirt road which to our knowledge was the furthest point North in the City of Peoria. During the early days of the Great Depression, he turned his beloved grocery store into a family run restaurant to better serve the community. Following the end of prohibition in 1933, he purchased liquor license #13 which became very lucky for our family as we now possess the oldest continually owned liquor license in Peoria. Another daughter joined the family and soon thereafter Great-Grandfather Jim retired in 1948. He passed the business to his sons Frank and Nick who introduced pizza to the Peoria area in order to satisfy the craving of soldiers returning from war service in Italy. Following a successful venture into the frozen pizza and spaghetti sauce market by brothers Jim and Jerry in the late 1960’s/early 1970’s, they took over the restaurant when their father Frank “officially” retired in 1979. Many claim that Jim and Jerry operated the restaurant in perfect ying and yang harmony! In 1988, they expanded the restaurant to include the “new room” for greater seating capacity. As we enter our 10th decade of operations, we look foward to serving you with the principles that we have learned through the years: 1.) Take pride and work to offer a high quality and consistent product at a fair price and 2.) Flour is much easier to handle than coal dust! We sincerely thank you for your continued support. You are the reason our history endures. Please let us know if there is anything we can do to make your visits with us more enjoyable. ~Danny and Tony Agatucci