Family owned since October 1955, La Bella Pizza Garden in Chula Vista, located in the heart of downtown, is celebrating its 65th anniversary by remembering its roots. Its journey began with a dairy farmer from the Catskills, Tony Raso (Papa Tony), and a waitress from Manhattan, Kitty Palmieri.
A World War II veteran, Papa Tony earned two purple hearts, so to avoid the aches from his injuries, he decided to move to Southern California due to its weather. And La Bella, which means “the beautiful” found its home.
Papa Tony’s second son, Tony Raso Jr., said his mother Kitty spent years in leadership with South Bay charities and was known as the “Mayor of Third Ave.”
“Kitty was very outspoken while serving La Bella’s customers as Papa Tony prepared food with their first son Joey.”
Raso Jr. said as business grew, they hired a dishwasher and, to keep him busy, La Bella introduced pizza delivery to Chula Vista in 1957.
He said La Bella’s history is filled with stories of wedding receptions and their generations of children growing up in the region.
Papa Tony ran La Bella’s for over 50 years and, after his passing in 2005, La Bella’s dedicated itself to continue in the spirit of Papa’s guidance.
“Kitty Raso would speak of her heart longing to be with Papa Tony again, on the evening of October 18, 2010, at age 92, she peacefully passed away in her sleep,” said Raso Jr. “They will not be forgotten and will continue to be the cornerstone of the community with event sponsorships at La Bella’s, our 65 year success.”
Raso said Papa Tony promoted a young man, Stan Dale, in 1977 as the manager and together they enlarged and modernized the kitchen. He said Dale is still a fundamental part of La Bella’s management to this day.
Born in 1959, Raso Jr. is the founder of La Bella Café & Games. He has been preparing for its reopening by bringing in the arcade games he purchased from closed businesses due to COVID-19.
With the café forced to be closed for now, La Bella was just approved to add 1,000 square feet for use as a dining area.
Raso said because La Bella’s is so volume metric, it can get pounded all at once with online orders. He said sometimes between 6 and 7 p.m., it will receive up to 200 orders.
“What we do to make it simple is we have daily lunch specials,” he said. “We do things with the rhythm of life. So when you have Taco Tuesdays, we do margarita pizzas with $5 margaritas and $5 off margarita pizzas. We do the rhythm of what people expect and want. We do promo codes. People are at home watching sports, so when you put in our promo code goodsports, they get 10 percent off.”
Raso said that with COVID-19, business had a limited profit with 75 employees, and they are doing their best to deal with the unknown that is happening locally and globally today.
“The world has really evolved into a menagerie and now it is going to go down, but not us. We are expanding another $1 million,” he said.
For the upcoming holidays, Raso said he does not expect big parties, but that maybe they will get some because people are afraid to throw large gatherings at their homes. He said La Bella is ready either way.
“We accommodate events of 20 people or less through our reservation portal,” he said. “We do not charge a cover fee until one week before the event and we confirm. We are accumulating reservations if we get to be open for the holidays, which right now we do not expect because the numbers are not going the right way.”
La Bella’s online Birthday Club has 10,000 active members who enjoy hearing about local events and special offers to bring a better dining experience, said Raso.
“Like happy hour all day until 6 p.m. to help create more space for the evening dinner hours. La Bella’s also promotes online orders to help the phone desk during the upcoming holiday by delivering catering trays,” he said.
La Bella’s takes dine-in reservations for 10 guests at LaBellas.com, events at La Bella’s upstairs banquet area and Raso plans on reopening La Bella Café & Games in early November and complete the dining expansion in the café in January 2021.
In a statement, the Third Avenue Village Association congratulated the La Bella Pizza family for its astonishing run of 65 years on the avenue.
“Since opening in 1955, La Bella Pizza has been a true community supporter and served generations of families in the heart of the Third Avenue Village neighborhood. Enjoy traditional robust Italian flavors on your next trip to the village.”
