Ferrante’s Restaurant & Signature Catering in Mequon has delighted taste buds and filled stomachs for over four decades. Many of its dishes are original family recipes from Rome that have remained unchanged. Like some Italian-American restaurants, Ferrante’s—as its name suggests—offers catering. But unlike other Italian-American restaurants, Ferrante’s offers kosher catering.

How’d that come to be? “In 2000 a friend asked me to cater her daughter’s bat mitzvah,” said owner Amy Ferrante-Gollwitzer, who has worked at the restaurant since she was 15. “I had to make a kosher noodle kugel. I’d never made one before. [My friend] gave me the recipe.” All was going well until a mashgiach (kosher supervisor) couldn’t find a hechsher (kosher symbol) on the egg noodles.