Family of Fresno restaurateurs honored for Italian restaurants. ‘Let no one outwork you’
Think about some of the best Italian restaurants in town and chances are, the LaRocca family had something to do with them.
The family will be honored Monday with a Lifetime Achievement Award as part of the Best of the Valley Restaurant Awards. The event is hosted by the Fresno chapter of the California Restaurant Association.
While all sorts of restaurants will be honored in various “best of” categories, the Lifetime Achievement Award goes to all the LaRoccas. The family has connections to FIVE Restaurant, Ovidio Italian Restaurant and DiCicco’s Italian Restaurant.
Today, many Fresnans know FIVE, the eatery that’s a blend of contemporary Californian and Italian cuisines at Champlain Drive and Perrin Avenue.
Pat LaRocca and wife Marina opened the restaurant in 2005.
Despite a fire in 2018 that shut down the restaurant for a year — and then the COVID-19 pandemic — the business bounced back.
Pat LaRocca is the son of Carmine and Giuseppina LaRocca, along with siblings Paul, Sonia and Virginia.
Virginia runs Ovidio with her husband, Franco Paolilli.
The LaRocca family
The LaRocca parents came to the United States in 1960, moving to Fresno in 1967 to be closer to Giuseppina’s family.
Her maiden name was DiCicco, and she was part of the family that ran the restaurants of the same name. That’s where the couple learned how to run a restaurant.
They opened LaRocca’s Ristorante Italiano in 1980. It operated for 30 years — including with son Paul LaRocca — serving pasta and other dishes in a dim and cozy atmosphere.
Pat LaRocca said he and his family were honored and humbled to receive the award.
His parents loved living in the United States and were not afraid of hard work, he said.
“My father just said, ‘Keep in mind there’s a lot of smart restaurant owners, and I’m going to teach you to let no one outwork you. You got to keep working hard.’”
He also thanked Fresno for its loyal support of their restaurants.
“It’s been an amazing run,” he said. “I want to keep the faith in my heart that the best is yet to come.”
