Credit: Natalie Jones
Credit: Natalie Jones
Since then, Anticoli has been selling the restaurant’s house dressing on the side, three to four times a year, via his social media audience. At the end of 2024, he decided to do it full-time under Anticoli Specialty Foods.
Where to buy the house dressing
The house dressing is now available in 12-oz. tubs for $10.
Customers may order directly from the website and have it shipped directly to them or schedule a local pickup at Ashley’s Pastry Shop, 21 Park Ave. in Oakwood, or Pop-up, 4 W. Main St. in Troy.
It’s also stocked and sold at Tony & Pete’s, 129 E. Third St. in Dayton, or The Cellar by Bottle No. 121, 1600 W. Main St.in Troy.
Credit: Natalie Jones
Credit: Natalie Jones
The house dressing is expected to be available later this month at Dorothy Lane Market.
In addition, Anticoli Specialty Foods is an outdoor vendor on select weekends throughout the summer and fall at 2nd Street Market. Anticoli will be at 600 E. Second St. in Dayton on Saturday, July 12.
How it can be used
The house dressing was traditionally served on a tossed salad at the Anticoli family restaurants.
“This was... pretty much served with every entree that people ordered, and it was originally done to order,” Anticoli said. “Back in the day, they would make it each time. They would mix it up (and) toss the salad.
The dressing is olive oil, garlic and basil based. It’s garlicky, but it’s not too garlicky.
“It was such a foundational piece of what we did that folks that ate there remember this,” Anticoli said. “I always tell folks that food memories are forever. You taste something and you like it, you’ll never forget it.”
Over the years, the dressing has become a marinade, dip, spread, pizza base and overall just something to add to food to enhance the flavor.
“I saw a big opportunity there to not only help folks recreate and have the original salads that they had, but it’s so much more,” Anticoli said.
One of his favorite ways to use the dressing is as a pizza base with chicken and fresh vegetables on top. He likes to squeeze a lemon on the pizza when it comes out of the oven and top it with a little bit of Pecorino Romano cheese.
The easiest and most convenient way for him to use it is as a spread on a turkey sandwich.
In the future, Anticoli hopes to package and sell their house butter and possibly some of their sauces such as the tomato basil.
“I really want to try to establish Anticoli Specialty Foods with the house dressing and then add as we go along,” Anticoli said.
The family’s history in the restaurant industry
The Anticoli family was once the longest-established restaurant family in Dayton.
It all started when Anticoli’s grandfather, Antonio, emigrated to the United States from Giuliano, Italy in 1919. He came through New York, but moved to Ohio to work as a mason by trade.
After an accident on a construction site, “my grandmother, who he met here, told him he better find something else to do,” Anticoli said. “The only other thing that he knew how to do was to cook.”
The couple opened the Rendezvous at 1511 E. Fifth St. in Dayton on New Year’s Eve 1931, offering sandwiches, spaghetti, hamburgers and meatballs to mostly Stivers High School students. The first day’s sales totaled 5 cents, for a package of gum.
The couple had three children and continued to operate the Rendezvous for about 20 years, renaming it “Anticoli’s” a few years before moving the restaurant to 3025 (later changed to 3045) Salem Avenue in 1951.
Anticoli’s was known for serving authentic Italian dishes using high-end ingredients. The food was simple, but executed very well.
The restaurant grew in popularity and size, hitting its heyday during the 1960s and 1970s, when thousands of Dayton-area families chose Anticoli’s for wedding receptions, family gatherings, high school reunions or a quick weeknight dinner.
Anticoli’s dad, aunt and uncle grew up in the business and when his grandparents stepped away, they took over.
Anticoli, who was born in 1967, described the restaurant as a “central piece” in his life.
“I grew up in the restaurant. I crawled around under the tables and ended up bussing tables there,” Anticoli said. “I remember hot fudge sundaes on Sunday afternoons. I remember my grandpa walking around. He always walked around with his hands kind of behind his back, just leisurely walking through the restaurant, and he would always hand me a cookie.”
After graduating from Bowling Green State University, Anticoli went full-time into the family business. In 1992, they expanded with La Piazza.
In 2000, Anticoli’s father, Leo, relocated Anticoli’s to Clayton and operated it as Caffe Anticoli until 2010. Leo then operated Anticoli’s Giuliano Tavern in Miamisburg until he retired in 2015.
“I was still doing La Piazza. I had a second location of La Piazza up in New Bremen for five, six years,” Anticoli said.
La Piazza closed in 2018.
When asked if he would ever open a restaurant again, Anticoli said, “I would never say never.”
“I think if I ever did something again, it would be sort of a much smaller scale, but it would take a lot of thought,” Anticoli added.
As he moves into this next chapter of the family business, he said he’s honored at the amount of hard work his family put into the restaurants to become a foundational piece of the Dayton community.
“I don’t take that lightly at all. I want to make sure everything I do honors that and that it’s right,” Anticoli said. “Food memories never leave you and that’s part of the magic of it.”
For more information, visit anticolifoods.com or the business’s Facebook or Instagram pages (@anticolispecialtyfoods).
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