Beloved owner of unusual Tri-Cities restaurant has died, not long after retiring

The owner of a Kennewick restaurant has died just 20 months after Carmine’s Italian Restaurant closed so he and his wife could retire.

Carmine Aitoro died Aug. 20, the restaurant posted Sunday on the Facebook page of the closed business.

He was 82 when he announced he and his wife, Joyce, would be closing the restaurant at 525 W. First Ave. in December 2019.

For more than 11 years Carmine’s Italian Restaurant dished up pasta and other Italian specialties served family style, with one dish featured each night.

The couple’s goal was to recreate the feel of eating at “Grandma’s house,” back when Carmine remembers 25 to 30 relatives would gather around Sunday dinner tables loaded with Italian dishes.

Recipes at the restaurant dated to 1918 when Carmine’s family immigrated from Italy, and family photos and memorabilia covered the walls to the ceiling of the 1929 house turned into a restaurant.

Carmine told the Tri-City Herald in 2009 that his wife was the brains behind the business.

He did the cooking and chatted with the customers.

He would share recipes, including the secret to his meatballs — cook them all day and use lots of eggs. And he would tell stories about life growing up in an Italian family in New Jersey and provide tours of the photos on the walls.

When regular customers did not show up for a while, he would worry, his daughter once told the Herald. He’d call, and if he found out they were sick and couldn’t leave the house, he would bring them dinner.

Carmine and Joyce retired with plans to slow down and spend more time with their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. They also wanted to turn the restaurant back into their original family home.

Within a few weeks of closing the restaurant, the family was joking on social media that, “Carmine is driving the family crazy because he has nothing to do. Not really, but he has nothing to do that HE WANTS TO DO.”

Tributes and memories of Carmine were being posted on social media Sunday and Monday.

‘Such a good man’

“I brought so many friends in to Carmine’s to meet this wonderful man, and he never failed to impress, with his charm, wit and complete likability,” one person posted.

Another said, “He was a wonderful man and our family enjoyed hearing his stories, having him share his album with his wedding pictures, and hearing his unconditional love for his wife.”

A nurse who cared for him several years ago, posted that he “was one of those patients you never ever forget because of the way he made me feel. Such a good man, with such an incredible love for his spouse! The world would be a much better place if people could strive to be like he was.”

Above the door of the restaurant was a sign that said, “Enter as guests. Leave as friends.”

All those who left as friends are invited to stop by Europa Italian and Spanish Cuisine at 2459 S. Union Place in Kennewick from 2 to 6 p.m. Sept. 18 to eat and share stories and memories.

A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. that day with in-person attendance only by family and a few friends, due to space limitations during the COVID pandemic. But a Zoom link will be posted for those who want to attend the service virtually.