Welcome to the Oldest Italian Restaurant on Long Island

When Frank and Concetta Stango emigrated from Sturno, Italy, in the early 1900s, little did they know that they would be starting a Glen Cove tradition that continues to this day. The couple met in Brooklyn, married and moved to Glen Cove in 1914. The Stangos then saw the need to fill a void in the city's Italian neighborhood, The Orchard. The need was for a sense of family with a little bit of Italy, its traditions, religion, culture and food to help a nostalgic immigrant population become acclimated to life in Glen Cove. Many of the residents in The Orchard were single men who worked on neighboring estates, lived in boarding houses and did not want, or know how, to cook for themselves. Hence, the birth of Stango's Restaurant. At first, Frank and Concetta made lunches for the men to take to work with them. Soon, dinners were added and the word spread rapidly that the food provided by the Stangos was wonderful. During the Depression, the restaurant survived as the Stangos made their own bread, soup and pasta. They used vegetables from the neighborhood garden.

Concetta and Frank's daughter, Stella, began working in the restaurant at 16 to help her widowed mother. Stella eventually married Gabriel Cocchiola in the first wedding ever held in the Church of St. Rocco. During World War II, Stella and her sister-in-law took over the restaurant while the men were overseas.

On May 2 1999, Stango's Restaurant celebrated its 80th anniversary and to add to the joy, the City of Glen Cove dedicated a corner of The Orchard neighborhood to the Stango family. It was a fitting tribute to one of the oldest and finest family-owned restaurants on Long Island, where, yes, everybody really does know your name. As guests gathered for the anniversary party, Stella Cocchiola greeted everyone with an enthusiastic "Come in. Sit, eat, tell me how you are," just as she's been doing for generations.

Written by Zefy Christopoulos - Glen Cove Record Pilot