BRIDGEPORT — Driving past Franco’s Ristorante, you might have noticed the Italian mainstay’s new paint job: Fire hydrant red with black trim.
“Red is a big color in the Italian heritage,” said Frank A. Ruffolo, the son of owners Frank and Jeanine Ruffolo. “This is something that distinguishes us.”
Running the restaurant at 300 W. 31st St. since 1989, the Ruffolo family recently decided to give the business a facelift, slapping on some new paint and removing the awnings to allow more light into the restaurant.
But when they removed the awnings, they revealed a 26-year-old mural inspired by Jeanine Ruffolo’s father, Santo “Sonny” Damico, who spent years running a produce stall at Chicago’s famed South Water Market.
Once covered by an awning, the mural depicts two men playing cards on a loading dock.
“It’s a nice mural that portrays what you don’t see at the loading dock,” Ruffolo said. “It’s just old school.”
The men in the painting are surrounded by fruit-filled crates and a dolly labeled, “HOUSE of LaMANTIA.” LaMantia Brothers was one of the largest fruit-and-vegetable firms at the South Water Market.
“Our neighborhood had quite a few men that made a living peddling produce,” said Jeanine Ruffolo. “They sold house to house and also had grocery stores or restaurants as their ‘stops.’”
Damico’s produce stall was on South Water Street, in the University Village neighborhood.
Before he died in 2008, Damico did what he could to help out at Franco’s Ristorante, often supplying fresh produce for the kitchen.
Damico’s brother still owns Hyde Park Produce.
“We relied on him for a lot of that,” Frank Ruffolo said.
Closed for renovations, Franco's is expected to open by the end of the November.
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