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Luca and Lola Sema opened Luca Italian Cuisine in the Flats in 2013. Four years later, they expanded with Luca West in Westlake. Well, it’s four years later and, yes, a new restaurant is coming: Acqua di Luca, with plans to open around mid-May. The couple bought the former XO Prime Steakhouse in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic but didn’t have...

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Mazzone & Sons Bakery is closed after decades of baking fresh goods in the Clark-Fulton neighborhood, as announced Thursday by another local business online. “It’s like we lost a friend,” Tony Campagna, who works at Gust Gallucci Italian Foods, a market that purchased baked goods from Mazzone’s for years, said. Gallucci’s published a Facebook post...

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The National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) announced the 2021 Hall of Fame class. The list of inductees includes: Lynda Goodrich, Western Washington University; Dan Guerrero, UCLA; Jean Lenti Ponsetto, DePaul University; Craig Littlepage, University of Virginia; Dave Roach, Fordham University; Cathie Schweitzer, Springfie...

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One of the greatest and most beloved players in Indians history is about to be immortalized forever. The Cuyahoga County Council on Tuesday unanimously approved allocating funds to help complete a statue of Tribe legend Rocky Colavito. The Italian American Brotherhood Club in Cleveland's Little Italy neighborhood is behind the effort and has been s...

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The eldest brother refers to theirs as a "traditional Italian American upbringing" in Cleveland. Extended family members, he says, were "always forming businesses together and running them together ... sort of the immigrant-family kind of dynamic." So, of course, when Anthony Russo and his younger brother, Joe Russo, decided to become filmmakers, t...

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Alan Canfora wouldn’t like a teary obituary. He didn’t like mawkishness, particularly sentimental descriptions of his decadeslong dedication to righting the wrongs of what he called the National Guard’s “intentional massacre” of four Kent State University students on May 4, 1970. Canfora, who spearheaded the 50-year-long movement for social justice...

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Chef Dante Boccuzzi has begun construction on his newest restaurant concept, Goma, on the corner of East 4th Street and Prospect Avenue. Despite the bleak winter likely ahead for most restaurants, Boccuzzi is moving forward with the plans he announced before the pandemic hit. Goma will be a sushi restaurant--similar to his Tremont establishme...

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Leo’s Italian Social is set to open Wednesday, Dec. 16, in Crocker Park. The restaurant, owned by Chef Art Pour Restaurant Group, will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 10:45 a.m. Doors open at 11 a.m. Leo’s Italian Social is in Center Circle at 200 Crocker Park Blvd., down the street from Burntwood Tavern, which the company also owns. It’s the sec...

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Vincent Francioli was an educator, civic leader, historian, WWII veteran, and a proud Italian American. He passed away at the Cleveland Clinic on October 17. His legacy includes the Fairwood Community Association, the Larchmere Business District, the Republican Veterans Group, and a host of former students and friends, many of whom were Italian Ame...

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Frankie Restifo, known to Clevelanders as "Uncle Frankie," is retiring from Gust Gallucci Italian Foods after working at the business for more than half a century. “We never thought this day would come, but tomorrow, after working with three generations of the Gallucci family, at 93 years old, Uncle Frankie is retiring. Whether through pandemic, de...

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