Everything
is fresh, from the raviolis to the egg plant to our own dough and all of our sauces. of love and a special detail to taste. “Recipes like our Baked Ziti, baked in a bed
of meat sauce, topped with a white cream sauce and freshly grated mozzarella cheese Lenny Tocco, Executive Chef (back) with Ginny & Frank Grippi, owners.
Frankie Tocco’s
Family & Food ... Italian Traditions
or how about our chicken Marsala, sautéed in a delectable Marsala wine sauce, topped with tomatoes, red onions, mushrooms and
freshly grated provel cheese, are all baked
to perfection,” Lenny said. “We believe in family and the Italian traditions.” The
The Toccos know good food.
Tocco’s
grandparents,
Anthony
and Sarah Tocco, on their father’s side,
Story by Robin Seaton Jefferson and Sylvestro and Virginia Guiffrida on Photos by Michael Schlueter their mother’s side, were Sicilians who immigrated into the United States via the
New York Harbor and Ellis Island. Anthony From the early part of the twentieth century
day running back and forth throughout the
pushed a wooden fish cart through the streets
donned top to bottom with family portraits
when Frankie Tocco’s father Anthony Tocco of St. Louis, to Tocco Bros. Seafood opened in the 1960s, to Frankie Tocco’s Pizzeria on
South Main Street in St. Charles today, the Tocco family has been feeding families in the St. Louis Metropolitan area and beyond for decades.
Siblings Lenny Tocco and Ginny Tocco Grippi, along with Grippi’s husband Frank Grippi, own and operate Frankie Tocco’s
in St. Charles. But it’s the brother and sister team who can be seen on any given 16 StreetScape Magazine
restaurant between the north and south walls and snapshots, or sitting in the booth closest
to the kitchen shouting “Hello!” and “How
would pick up his fish on the riverfront in
St. Louis and sell it wrapped in newspaper throughout the city from his push cart every
Friday for lent “all year long,” Lenny said. Sylvestro was a fruit peddler in St. Louis.
‘ya doin’?” to the people—most of whom
Later the sons of those men would open
dinner. The two share their grandmother’s
M&L
are friends—who come in for lunch or
recipes and her love for cooking every day with patrons of their Italian eatery.
Growing up, they spent much of their time
in the kitchen with their mother “Cookie,” learning the fine art of cooking, preparing
recipes the way their ancestors did, with lots
Tocco Foods, and their sons would start Foods,
companies.
both
food
distribution
“This establishment, Frankie Tocco’s, is dedicated to our father, Frank James Dominic
Tocco,” Lenny said. “Born of Italian immigrants, our father was surrounded by the fine art of Italian cooking. One hundred