ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - A giant in the local restaurant business has passed away, Vincent Bommarito, the owner of Tony's in downtown died early Tuesday morning. He was 88-years-old.
He was the owner of Tony's since the 1940's, taking over the family-owner business after his father's death. Fellow restaurateur Mark Cusamano recounted the story, saying Bommarito had not even graduated high school before becoming owner.
Bommarito never had formal culinary training, just a natural instinct of delicious food with attention to service.
A life-long resident of his beloved St. Louis, Bommarito received numerous accolades from a grateful community, including the St. Louis Business Journal’s Man of the Year, the Missouri Restaurant Association Restaurateur of the Year, City of Hope Award and the Martin Luther King Community Award.
The Italian, fine-dinning restaurant was among the first St. Louis-area restaurants to receive national recognition. It is one of only nine restaurants in the country to receive the Mobil five-star rating (now called Forbes Travel Guide), to the AAA Five Diamond Award and the Conde Nast Best Italian Restaurant Award, the recognitions continue to multiply.
Many of the most respected and successful restaurateurs credit Vince and Tony’s restaurant for their start, among them: the late Kim Tucci, owner of the Pasta House Company who was first hired as a cashier before Vince offered him a promotion; Frank Papa of Frank Papa’s Ristorante (Brentwood) who began in Tony’s kitchen at just 25-years old; Michael Garozzo, now the owner of three Garozzo’s Ristorante locations and Kansas City Restaurant Association’s restaurateur of the year (2001), has praised Vince Bommarito as being one of his most influential mentors; Giovanni Gabriele, owner of Il Bel Lago (Creve Coeur), Giovanni's Kitchen (Ladue) and Giovanni's on The Hill, first accepted a position as a busboy and eventually decided to leave his full-time engineering job for his love of Tony’s restaurant. Dominic Galati, owner of Dominic’s Restaurant, also began his career at Tony’s.
It was Vince’s driving “hospitality mentality” that has benefited the entire city of St. Louis. He founded and chaired the Beautification program for the Downtown St. Louis Partnership, which honored Vince with the Levee Stone Award for his tenacious advocacy for a better downtown (1999). Vince served as a member of the Advisory Committee for the Hospitality Studies program at St. Louis Community College-Forest Park where he spearheaded the initiative to raise private donations and state funding – expanding the facilities to educate hospitality leaders for generations to come. Vince was a three-term Chairman of the Convention and Visitors Commission (now Explore St. Louis); he served on the Metropolitan Police Department’s Board of Police Commissioners, and was active in the Zoo Museum District, among many others.
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