A Clovis Italian restaurant has a new owner. It’s now part of the DiCicco empire
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Pasquale “Pat” DiCicco bought Andiamo last year and has run it since November.
- Andiamo will keep its name and not be converted into a DiCicco’s.
- DiCicco will keep operations mostly the same and add specialty dinners.
Longtime Clovis restaurant Andiamo Ristorane Italiano in Clovis has a new owner with a familiar name.
Pasquale “Pat” DiCicco bought the restaurant on Shaw Avenue, across from Sierra Vista Mall.
Yes, he’s related to those DiCiccos, the ones behind all the DiCicco’s Italian Restaurants in town.
He bought Andiamo last year and has been running it since November.
The former owners, Jennifer and Carlo Paolilli, who are also related to the DiCicco family by marriage, retired and moved to Italy.
Andiamo Ristorane Italiano
Andiamo, which means “Let’s go,” in Italian has been operating under that name since 2005, when the owners sold their multiple Bay Area restaurants and moved here to run it, according to Bee archives.
Before that, it was known as Vitucci’s Italian Restaurant and also run by part of the DiCicco family.
Andiamo is popular for its veal dishes, and its “scarpata” pasta tossed in a pink cream sauce with sausage, prosciutto and pepperonici.
And there’s the accordion player who’s a semi-regular on Friday nights: ”If he shows up, he shows up,” said DiCicco. “He’s retired.”
And though Andiamo is owned by a DiCicco, it’s technically not part of DiCicco’s, the restaurants.
The DiCicco’s restaurants are not all owned by one company. Instead, they are owned by different members of the family, some of them owning several locations.
That family tree is responsible for a lot of restaurants in the area, with branches stretching out to include the people behind Five and Ovidio Ristorante Italiano.
But Andiamo will stay Andiamo.
“My goal was not to come in and convert it to a DiCicco’s or anything,” he said.
DiCicco didn’t originally intend to buy Andiamo.
He’s owned restaurants before, including the former DiCicco’s at Cedar and Shields avenues and the location in Old Town Clovis.
His father, Nick, was one of the “Four Sons of Italy,” brothers who founded DiCicco’s.
Pat DiCicco also opened Lido Restaurant, a contemporary Italian restaurant that operated from 1984 to 1994, first at Shaw and Marks avenues and later Shaw and Van Ness Boulevard.
“I did it because I wanted to prove to family I could be successful without using my name,” he said.
He went to culinary school, and could do all the cooking, but decided to leave that behind and go into food manufacturing, selling food products.
He did some real estate on the side.
He ended up selling the Andiamo business, giving tours to potential buyers.
“We had a lot of people very interested in the rest,” he said. “We were almost close three different times.”
But each time, it didn’t work out, he said.
“A lot of people want to own restaurants, it’s a fantasy,” he said.
But having the knowledge and experience to run a restaurant is hard to come by. Finally, it hit him.
“I said, ‘I’m the one who should be buying this restaurant. I know exactly how to run it,’” DiCicco said. “So we ended up working out a deal.”
He doesn’t plan on changing much.
He wants to add a Lido dish involving a tomato cream sauce with peas and prosciutto over penne or fettucini.
And he’s promoting more specialty dinners, such as five-course meals with cigar and whiskey tastings.
“My goal is to keep everything the same and do a better job,” he said. “I bought it because they already did a nice job.”
