This Fresno restaurant just turned 40, and is celebrating with some decades-old prices
Back in 1979, Gloria Gaynor’s disco anthem “I Will Survive“ was topping the charts, Britain had just elected its first female prime minister, and gas in California cost around $1.09 a gallon.
It was also the year Ovidio Ristorante Italiano opened in Fresno.
The Italian restaurant, at Bullard and Marks avenues since it opened, just celebrated its 40th anniversary last month.
To share in the celebration with its customers, Ovidio’s, as it’s often called, is selling a special, three-course meal for $19.79 throughout the month of January.
The meal includes a choice of chicken Parmesan, baked lasagna, or scampi alla Franco (fresh shrimp sauteed in garlic oil, with lemon, capers and white wine) served over linguine. It comes with minestrone or salad and for dessert, spumoni ice cream or cannoli.
“It’s just something to thank the good people of the Valley, for all their support and loyalty for the last 40 years,” said general manager Rocco Paolilli.
Ovidio’s – named after the Roman poet – was opened by Rocco’s parents, Frank and Virginia Paolilli.
Frank Paolilli still cooks in the kitchen five days a week, and Rocco and his sister Joanna manage the restaurant.
The family is considered Italian restaurant royalty in Fresno. They’re related to the people who own DiCicco’s Italian Restaurants and LaRocca’s Italian Restaurant. LaRocca’s has since closed, but its owners now run Five Restaurant, which recently reopened after a fire closed it for a year.
Frank worked at DiCicco’s before he opened Ovidio’s. He quit that job three times, each time thinking he was ready to open Ovidio’s only to have the opening date pushed back.
What’s changed — and what’s the same?
At Ovidio’s, some things have changed a lot over the years. There used to be fig orchards nearby, Rocco said.
Prices, of course, have gone up over the decades. A Fresno Bee restaurant review in early 1980 in the “Dining Out” column by Woody Laughnan praised the lunchtime menu for offering eggplant parmigiana and lasagna for $3.75 or less.
They added a bar and a banquet room over the years too.
But some things have remained the same.
Traditional pasta served with a red sauce has been popular for decades, Rocco Paolilli said. The rigatoni della casa is another perennial favorite, made with veal, mushrooms and chopped tomatoes in a creamy Chardonnay wine sauce.
Paolilli said the special menu is a way to thank the people who have supported them over the years.
“We really appreciate the loyalty, the support, and just thank you for everything you’ve done and (how you’ve) kept us going for 40 year. We hope to keep it going, I don’t know if another 40, but a long, long time.”
Details: Ovidio Ristorante Italiano, 3097 W. Bullard Ave., Fresno. (559) 435-1396.
This story was originally published January 6, 2020 at 1:56 PM.
