Much has changed in the last 25 years, but one thing has remained consistent throughout the city of Bowling Green: the DiBenedetto’s family tradition.
DiBenedetto’s, a family-owned Italian restaurant located on 1432 E. Wooster St., first opened in 1979 at a smaller location on Main Street, where Madhatter Music now operates. Five years later they moved to their current location, not only expanding the restaurant’s size, but also their menu.
Owner Ramona DiBenedetto said that while so much has changed over the years, the loyalty of the customers has never gone away.
“We have a lot of repeat business,” she said. “We do a lot of catering and a lot of functions. We just catered to Owens, Illinois three days in a row.”
Manager Jennifer Everheart said that in the three years she has worked at DiBenedetto’s, the customers always keep coming back.
“I like seeing the same customers over and over again,” Everheart said.
But Everheart said, that with the Wooster Street construction, it has been tougher for customers to get in and out of the parking lot. She said there are current plans this summer to help reduce this problem.
“The parking lot in the back will be leveled off so people can just drive in from the back,” Everheart said. “That way they won’t have to worry about going on Wooster because the construction is so bad.”
However, the construction has not stopped most of the customers from eating their lunches. DiBenedetto said that while business in the evenings is much slower due to the absence of students, the lunch crowd remains as hungry as always.
“I’m amazed at the people who come in when the construction is so bad out there,” DiBenedetto said. “I wonder how in the world they get here, but they just find a way.”
DiBenedetto said the thing that keeps the customers coming back is the family recipe.
“We make our own sauces from scratch, and we bake our own bread,” she said. “A lot of people appreciate that we make our food and do everything ourselves.”
DiBenedetto said it has taken a lot of experience and learning through the years to reach this point.
“When we started, we couldn’t bake our own bread, we used to pick it up from the bakery,” she said. “Then a baker from Italy came and showed us how to bake bread.”
The bread at DiBenedetto’s has long since been a favorite among customers.
“Everyone says our bread is the best,” Everheart said.
Along with the increase in popularity, there have also been requests to open up more restaurants and possibly sell the DiBenedetto’s franchise. But DiBenedetto is fine with keeping things the way they are, especially now that she is able to enjoy the business more than ever before.
“I’m not ready to take my name off the door yet,” she said. “We’ve done the hard work, now we’re getting to the fun part. We work 15-20 hours a week and it keeps us happy.”
