Our Grandfather Giuseppe DiRocco was born in Italy on February 17th, 1899. In June, 1920, at the age of 20, he came to America to visit family in Philadelphia. It was during that time that decided to go back to Italy to find himself a wife. In 1936, at the age of 37, my grandfather married my grandmother (Pearl) who was 22 years old, and moved her to Philadelphia to start a family. The photo in th
e background is our grandparents picking lemons from their lemon tree. He was a carpenter by trade but due to back injuries over time, he could no longer do carpentry work. In 1956 they opened their first Italian restaurant located just outside Philadelphia in Havertown, PA. The Gondolier was an authentic Italian restaurant run totally by our grandparents who did all the cooking, and family members who served as waiters and waitresses. Shortly after opening The Gondolier, my grandfather knew he wanted to start another restaurant but this time he wanted an Italian luncheonette. With no money to pay for the rent of another building, he decided to add an addition to his home in Havertown and turned the addition into The Little Spot Luncheonette, which opened in 1960. We remember walking down the basement of their home which connected to the dry storage area of the restaurant. Working at the Little Spot is one of our most precious memories - building pizza boxes for hours, and preparing the red plastic sandwich boats with paper for cheese steaksWe offer many of the same items served at both the Gondolier and The Little Spot. From the Roast Pork with Broccoli Rabe and Provolone cheese sandwiches to our grandmother’s Pizza Steaks,
J-LUKE'S delivers on the beloved tradition of what our grandparents started 57 years ago. . If we did a good job at the end of the night, we would get a Hostess pie - there was nothing like it! It was those experiences that ingrained in us our love of authentic Italian cooking. J-Luke’s was named after the latest boys in the lineage - John and Luke Myura, who add even more inspiration and love into the mix.
