LoCoco’s founder and proprietor Joe LoCoco was literally born into the restaurant business and a culture centered around delicious Italian cuisine. Born the youngest of five children to Sicilian parents in Tuscan Livorno, Joe immigrated with his family to Buffalo, New York in 1956 on the famous liner Andrea Doria. In those days, life in the Buffalo Italian community that Joe’s family lived in was ... more as said to be nearly identical to the lifestyle in Calabria, from the local Italian farmer’s market owned by the Tulumello family to bocce ball in the park. And everywhere you went—fresh, delicious Italian family-style cooking.

Joe earned a business degree from Bryant and Stratton Business Institute of New York before returning to Italy to live in Ardenza, a suburb of Livorno. There he worked in his aunt and uncle’s restaurant, cooking dishes such as rotisserie chicken and pizza. After a year, he returned to the US to work with his sister Josie at her New York style submarine sandwich shop in San Francisco. Within two years, and with Joe’s help, they had opened a total of eight branches of Viking Submarines, and after the business was sold the trio opened a new restaurant called La Trattoria in San Rafael, CA. less