Drago restaurants

The Drago family has owned and operated some of the most famous high-end Italian restaurants in Los Angeles, California, since the 1980s.^[1] They are known for their pasta dishes.^[2] The family includes four brothers:Tanino, Calogero, Celestino,^[3] and Giacomino.^[4] Giacomino is co-owner of 11 Los Angeles restaurants—including Beverly Hills' iconic Il Pastaio and Via Alloro,^[5] and referred to as the scion of the family's restaurant businesses.^[6]

Celestino Drago immigrated to Los Angeles from Sicily in the mid-1970s, and held his first job with Osteria Romana Orsini on Pico Boulevard as a chef before leaving to launch Celestino, "his seminal Italian restaurant in Beverly Hills (now defunct but re-created in Pasadena under the same name)".^[7] He brought over three of his brothers from the family restaurant in Messina. Celestino parted ways with investor Art Vella in 1991.^[8][9][10]

Some of their dishes have been featured in cookbooks.^[11][12]

Restaurants

• Celestino (in Beverly Hills until 1991; now operating in Pasadena)
• L'Arancino (closed)^[13]
• Celestino Steak House (West Hollywood, closed 2009) ^[14]
• Drago^[15] Santa Monica (closed)
• Il Pastaio ^[6][16][17]
• Enoteca Drago Beverly Hills wine bar
• Drago Centro (a Stanley Felderman designed restaurant in Downtown Los Angeles, opened 2009)
• Osteria Drago (West Hollywood, opened 2012) (permanently closed)
• Tanino Ristorante Bar ^[18]
• Panzanella Ristorante Sherman Oaks

See also

• List of Italian restaurants