More than 80 relatives of the owners of the famous Italian restaurant, Philomena DeMarco-Yannarella and Daniel Yannarella, came to Lambertville last weekend for a reunion.
By: Linda Seida
LAMBERTVILLE More than 80 relatives and descendants of a couple who are remembered as an "institution" in the city returned last weekend for a family reunion.
Philomena DeMarco-Yannarella and Daniel Yannarella ran Phil & Dan’s, a South Main Street Italian restaurant, from the 1950s until 1992.
They sold it to Rick Buscavage, who turned it into Rick’s, but kept basically the same atmosphere and good Italian food with some additions.
"Talk about a hard act to follow," Mr. Buscavage recalled.
He said the best advice he received came from the owner of Hamilton’s Grill Room, his friend Jim Hamilton, who told him, "This is an institution. Don’t screw it up by changing things. You’ll lose the business."
Phil and Dan have died, but to this day, if people say, "Phil and Dan," many Lambertville residents know exactly who they mean.
Mr. Buscavage said, "We tried to keep the menu the same, offering the parmesans and the pastas and the salads, but we could never duplicate any of the recipes that retired with the name. Some of the old customers became our customers, and some of Phil and Dan’s customers never returned."
Last Saturday, 82 members of the DeMarco and Yannarella clans gathered at the restaurant where Phil and Dan once ran their own Italian restaurant while raising their three boys and two girls in the living quarters upstairs.
The oldest relative at the reunion was 86, the youngest 10 months.
Both Phil’s and Dan’s parents came to America from Italy, traveling through Ellis Island, according to granddaughter Jena Clark.
Phil was born in Trenton. She had five brothers and five sisters. Only two are alive today, Joseph DeMarco of Trenton and Mildred DeMarco-Yannarella of Lambertville.
Dan was born in Waterbury, Conn. He had five brothers and four sisters. Only four of the brothers are alive today. Three of them Mickey, Chris and Bennie still reside in Lambertville while the fourth, Charlie, lives in Florida.
Dan’s brother, Mickey, married Phil’s sister, Mildred.
The couple first opened their restaurant on Bridge Street before moving to South Main.
The restaurant now is owned by chef Alex Cormier and his wife, Dana Ruggiero. Mr. Cormier took over in October 2003. He said Phil and Dan’s family will find that little has changed.
Over the years, some of Phil and Dan’s family moved away to the Doylestown and Trenton areas. Other family members spread out, too, and they’re living now in Oklahoma, Florida and North Carolina, according to Ms. Clark, who still lives in Lambertville. Two of the granddaughters still waitress, although not at Rick’s anymore.
One granddaughter worked for Mr. Buscavage after he bought the restaurant.
"We would never have experienced the comfortable and successful transition had it not been for Phil and Dan’s granddaughter, Pam Clarke, who worked with us from day one and made Rick’s an updated version of her grandparents’ restaurant," Mr. Buscavage said. "I guess, by accident, we duplicated the atmosphere and added our own food.
"We still had the line out front to wait for a table like Phil and Dan, but if you were a friend, you were whisked from the mass and led down the hall to the mysterious door without a knob to enter the ‘back room’ where the ‘who’s who’ sat and ate.
"Or if you were really in the know, you entered the back door through the kitchen and avoided the line completely. The back room was the meeting place for lovers, friends, celebrities, celebrations and politicians. As the old saying goes, ‘If those walls could talk, those walls would have a lot to say.’"