WHEREAS, John and Concetta opened their first restaurant, Io e Tu Ristorante, at 9th and Greenwich Streets on October 15, 1992, which they ran successfully for fourteen years; and
WHEREAS, When the opportunity came to open a second restaurant on South Broad Street the Varallo’s along with their families jumped at the chance and opened Ristorante Pesto in March 2003. With the faithful following of their customers from Io e Tu Ristorante, the Varallo’s were able to successfully run both restaurants while maintaining the high quality delicious food for which they had become well known for; and
WHEREAS, With the success of Ristorante Pesto it became harder and harder to maintain both Io e Tu Ristorante and Ristorante Pesto and eventually the Varallo’s decided to sell the building at 9th and Greenwich Streets and devote all of their attention to Ristorante Pesto and a new venture Pizzeria Pesto with Claudio, Concetta’s brother-in-law, in 2010; and
WHEREAS, John and Concetta Varallo were approached by the Rachael Ray Show to represent Philadelphia in their first ever “Little Italy Showdown” where they would compete against Benito One Restaurant from New York and E Tutti Qua from San Francisco; and
WHEREAS, Each restaurant was asked to prepare their signature dish for the competition. John and their daughter Chef Maria prepared their famous cavatelli pasta which is homemade cavatelli served with lobster, shrimp and crabmeat in a blush sauce. They beat out the other restaurants offerings of spaghetti carbonara and large rigatoni with porcini mushrooms, prosciutto and truffle oil in cream sauce; and
WHEREAS, Ristorante Pesto’s success on the Rachael Ray Show comes as no surprise to us Philadelphians as they have been voted Best Italian Restaurant from the South Philadelphia Review Newspaper readers 3 years out of 5 years and came in second the other 2 years. This year Ristorante Pesto was voted best BYOB and romantic dining spot by the Review. Ristorante Pesto is currently the number one Italian restaurant on Trip Advisor out of over 3000 restaurants in Philadelphia; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, That we Honor and congratulate Pesto Restaurant on winning the first ever Rachael Ray “Little Italy Showdown”.
FURTHER RESOLVED, That an Engrossed copy of this resolution be presented to John and Concetta Varallo as evidence of the sincere sentiments of this legislative body.
End