Carina Cristiano, owner and daughter of the restaurant’s original founders, said that the time to retire has come.
“My mother is 82, my brother Nino is going to be 64, and I turn 50 on Saturday,” she said. “We’re ready to retire, you know. After working non-stop from morning to night, you kind of have to look at your life and say, ‘OK, how much more do I want to do?'”
Prior to opening Nino’s in the United States, Carina’s parents, Inge and Vincenzo Cristiano, moved from Europe to Canada and various other locations. From Canada, the family traveled to Bogota, Colombia, where they opened two restaurants and helped make uniforms for the local police.
According to Carina, Colombia’s political turmoil at the time caused her family to move to the United States.
“Nino’s opened in 1958,” Carina said. “I always thought business in Bixby Knolls was great up until the 1990s.”
Carina believes that the love for their customers helped Nino’s survive the test of time.
“I know restaurants that can’t last a year or five years,” Carina said. “I love when people open up a place and talk down to the older Italian restaurants. They say they are going to be trendy and cool, and yet they don’t make it.”
[aesop_image imgwidth=”250px” img=”http://www.signaltribunenewspaper.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Screen-Shot-2016-08-04-at-3.35.59-PM.png” align=”left” lightbox=”on” caption=”From left: Inge Cristiano, Vincenzo Cristiano and Pauline Lauteri” captionposition=”left”] The community quickly embraced the Italian-themed restaurant, according to Carina, and inseparable bonds between the Cristianos and customers quickly began to form.
[aesop_image imgwidth=”250px” img=”http://www.signaltribunenewspaper.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Screen-Shot-2016-08-04-at-3.36.04-PM.png” align=”right” lightbox=”on” caption=”From left: Inge Cristiano, Nino Cristiano, Vincenzo Cristiano, Carina Cristiano and Mike Cristiano” captionposition=”right”] “I remember being 6 years old and seeing a line go out the door,” she recalled. “When we announced that we were closing, people took it personally.”
Considering there have been so many first dates and proposals that took place in Nino’s, the restaurant is a special place for customers, Carina said.
An episode of the reality show Kitchen Nightmares, hosted by Chef Gordon Ramsay, was filmed in Nino’s restaurant.
“They tried to film what was 58 years of business in just four days,” Carina said. “On Facebook, we had a revolution of mad customers that questioned Ramsay’s decisions.”
According to Carina, the Cristiano family has no future plans with Nino’s restaurant. She said that the family is going to try finding hobbies and travel after the restaurant closes.
