Venetian Inn
This restaurant was located at 2814 Rice Street, Little Canada.
It was started by the Vitale family Mama and Papa Vitale (Congie and Joe). Their grandson Joe provides these details:
They started the business in their home in 1928 when they first got married. They bought the property on the corner of Rice Street and Little Canada Road from Hamm’s Brewery for $750.
It started with a house and then grew to include a vegetable stand because my parents farmed. Eventually, Congie would start making Italian foods and serve it right out of the house.
They cleared out the living room and put a couple of tables in and used their own silverware. Eventually they converted the house into a restaurant in the front, and we lived in the back of it.
They never moved from that location through tornadoes and fires and kept expanding until 1963 when it was destroyed by a fire. At that point a new restaurant building was put up.
It was around for 73 years with good food and great shows and dancing in the Cocktail Lounge.
It closed on December 31, 2001, as Little Canada wanted to redevelop the area.