Carter was president, gas was 86 cents a gallon, a new sports-focused TV channel called ESPN launched.
It was 1979.
And here in OC a much tastier debut was ready for its fresh grated parmesan and cracked pepper.
Because that’s the year Antonio Cagnolo opened Antonello Ristorante at South Coast Plaza Village.
Four decades later, it’s still going strong—a rare feat for restaurants.
“It’s unheard of,” Cagnolo told me last month when I dropped by. “Maybe you last five years, unless you’re a chain.”
Cagnolo has seen many changes in the industry, but the one he claims has influenced it most is social media.
It “builds you up and kills you,” he said, noting people often go to a restaurant simply because its online presence—photos, comments, virality—speaks to something trendy or, ironically, unique.
By way of contrast, perhaps, Cagnolo tells me, “When you come to Antonello, you know what you’re going to get.”
The short list:
“Good food, Italian sauce, good parmesan cheese, the best veal, grass-fed beef.”
For the pasta, “we go all out: it’s homemade, like my mother used to make.”
It’s really quite simple, he says.
“I grew up on a farm, everything was from the garden,” he says. Then, in a chuckling nod to a current buzzword: “All we had was farm-to-table.”
The coup de grâce: no skimping on quality.
“Never did, never will.”
Luminaries
Cagnolo went from his family farm in Italy to hotel management school in Germany to working at the Royal Albert Hotel in London.
Orange County was next, where in 1977 he went to work at Alfredo’s in the Westin South Coast Plaza, one of Henry Segerstrom’s favorite dining spots. Segerstrom liked Cagnolo and his personalized, tableside service.
Two years later, Segerstrom helped him open Antonello.
He put down roots and met other legends.
According to Fifi Chao, the Business Journal’s late dining columnist and local culinary legend, much of OC history “has unfolded at tables in this restaurant … it became the immediate hangout of the rich and powerful.”
Politicians, CEOs, dignitaries, U.S. presidents and movie stars have dined at Antonello over the years. Corporate events and client dinners have taken place in its private dining areas.
Chao later chose Antonello for Restaurant of the Year honors, too.
The restaurant’s luster is undimmed, but challenges loom.
Its once-bustling shopping center off Sunflower Avenue sees less foot traffic; a handful of restaurants remain. The hustle and bustle has shifted to South Coast Plaza, across the road.
A preview space for OCMA—Orange County Museum of Arts—while its main digs are built nearby is a temporary draw.
All Day Long
“Antonello has been known as a special occasion restaurant, but I want us to be every occasion,” says Cagnolo. Come and relax during the grind of the workday, or, he says, as a treat while weekending.
“Come for salad and pasta and a glass of wine,” he says. Come “after shopping, why not? Just carpaccio and a glass of wine, some really good bread, and you have your dinner. You don’t have to spend $100. I want to emphasize that. Don’t feel intimidated.”
Cagnolo had me try the Carpaccio Polipo: thinly sliced Spanish octopus, slowly cooked and drizzled with olive oil. He said it’s one of his most popular dishes.
No wonder: it’s beautiful, and the flavors are a slow tango on the tongue.
I also tried spaghetti alla pescatora, piled high with shrimp, scallops, lobster tail, mussels and clams, in a light tomato broth. This is a dream dish to savor while munching on the garlic bread—which you dunk in the sauce as in the Old Country, of course.
Cagnolo also owns and operates two dining destinations in South Coast Plaza: Quattro Caffé, and Antonello Espresso Café.
He takes it a year at a time with an open-ended lease, and rumors among local business owners of a hotel or other new projects in space now occupied by the far reaches of South Coast Plaza’s parking lots and the former Sears location.
Until then, the fine Italian gent greets guests, helps them feel welcome, and guides them to a superb dining experience.
Antonello Ristorante: 3800 South Plaza Drive, Santa Ana, (714) 751-7153, antonello.com
