Talk of the Town
The Talk of the Town –
Danny DeCarlo, IA Club By Karen L. Chandler
Photo Credit: Wayne Becker, Dave Zerbe Studio of Photography
T
he new year brought a new start to the Italian American Club. Daniel DeCarlo, Jr., the President and Head Steward and great-grandson of founder Donato Ciervo, is rebranding and reimagining the historic spot to connect with the community, welcome members of all nationalities into an exclusive atmosphere, and spread the love of friends and family as the original members intended.
WRA: The Italian American Club has quite a history. Will you fill us in? Danny: The club started in 1935 with a whole lot of Italian families who got together to start a club because, before the club, they would go from house to house and have a get-together. As families grew, it wasn’t feasible to be in people’s homes and they wanted a club where they could gather. WRA: When did you first become involved and how did that evolve? Danny: I was asked to become a board member probably when I was 21 and I was just a helper for all those years. I got more involved with the past president, my cousin, Albert Ciervo, helping out with the club. Three years ago, Albert moved to Philadelphia, and I took over the presidency so the club could go on. The club was looking at being closed when Albert left. WRA: Despite the popularity of the club, did you think it needed to change with the times? Danny: It did. It went back and forth over the years. There were many years where it was treated as almost like a fire company type of drinking atmosphere. When Albert took 12
Avenues Spring 2022
over, he made it more of an exclusive club but it went back for a short period of time to not being exclusive. We are bringing it back to exclusive again. WRA: How are you making that happen and how will it affect your customers? Danny: Now we have an application for membership in place which we didn’t have before, increased membership fees, and corporate memberships. We have Jessica Prutzman and J Prutzman Enterprises to help us with the rebranding and interior design that had to happen in the club to make it that exclusive spot. We put a granite bar top in, reupholstered furniture, painted, and added new lighting to bring it up to date. The second floor was never utilized before. It just became a storage facility, so we cleaned it out, refurbished hardwood floors, and I had a local artist, Tim Riegel, paint murals in one of the two rooms. It is a usable space that I can use for overflow on busy weekends where people can go and relax or use for great, secluded private parties. We have electronic access cards for members who used to just buzz to get into the club. That makes it become more exclusive and makes it part of ownership. We have a new logo and a website. We’ll be putting member profiles on our website blog so people can read about who is coming to the club. WRA: What are some of your favorite menu items? Danny: We have a new cocktail menu, with the help of Jim Keller of Go Fish, and we named it after some of the local and national mobsters just to keep it interesting. Two of
