California Restaurant Assn, Fresno Chapter - 24 Years of Awards - Part 1

What a treat we have for you in our 4 Part Series

Fresno's Lifetime Achievement Awards

Best of the Valley Restaurants -1991 to 2014

We recently visited with Roman Cotta of Wedgewood Wedding and Banquet Center. Roman Cotta is past President of the California Restaurant Association, Fresno Chapter. He was kind enough to share with us the list of the Past 24 year Lifetime Achievement Awards for the Best of the Valley Restaurants.

Many of you have seen these plates hanging on the walls of a few local restaurants. Pictured below is the award for the Vineyard Restaurant and The Mariscotti Family in 2009. The Vineyard will be one of our upcoming features in this series.

1991 - Marie Vallis, Vallis Restaurant, Kingsburg

Today's list of featured restaurants and restauranteurs begins with Marie Vallis of the Vallis Restaurant in Kingsburg. Our research on the web provided only a tad bit of information and digging for a photo only provided us with the one above of Jonathon's Restaurant which followed after the close of Vallis. Jonathon's is also closed now and our research shows that it has been replaced with an Armenian restaurant called the Hye Life. Marie Vallis and her youngest son have passed away and we understand that her oldest son is an attorney still practicing in his office next door to the restaurant. 

NOTE: We are unsure of the validity of the information here and in the remainder of the stories in today and tomorrow's report. We are simply reporting information we have been able to locate on the internet. Please feel free to advise of corrections or information that you might have.

1992 - Elmo Del Bianco - Lucca's Restaurant, Madera, CA

The only information we were able to locate is that Victoria and Sirio Del Bianco became co-owners with Elmo and Anna Del Bianco of Lucca's Restaurant in Madera shortly after WWII. Lucca's Restaurant originally began in 1935, started by Sirio and Elmo's parents, Georgio and Lela Del Bianco. This information was gleaned from Victoria Del Bianco's obituary after she passed away on May 6, 2015. There is no working phone number for Lucca's in Madera that we could find.

1993 - Tom Ferdinandi, Sr. & Jim DeMera - Me-N-Ed's Pizzerias

Please see our blog on Me-N-Ed's dated 9-21-15.

1994 - Albert Pardini - Pardini's Restaurant, Fresno

The year was 1958 and Al Pardini was a young restauranteur, just new to Fresno. He had a passion for serving fine food, bringing a quality product and a customer-focused mentality.

The name Jim Pardini is familiar to all of us, as he continued with his father's values since 1981. And in recent years, Jim's two sons have entered the business, now three generations of fine food for the Fresno area!

Many of us will remember the fine dining at the old Pardini's Restaurant, fabulous steaks and seafood. It was at Pardini's where I was first introduced to one of my favorites, escargot! Yes, I'm telling my age, and I remember many evenings enjoying the music of Jim Lyons and socializing with the young crowd in the Pardini's Bar.

How many of you remember Jim Lyons first album that he produced back in those days? He's still performing regularly in Fresno today! But we're getting off the subject here.

1995 - Arthur Bender - McDonald's

What a story Arthur Bender has! Many claim that the first ever McDonald's restaurant was the one at Shields and Blackstone. In fact, the first ever McDonald's was opened in San Bernardino, California in 1948 by two brothers, Dick and Mac McDonald. The Art Bender who received the Best of the Valley Restaurant award in 1995 was there in San Bernardino in the very beginning! With just a little research on the internet, you'll find an interview with Art Bender that will give you in-depth background.

So, you ask, what't the deal with Fresno if he is from San Bernardino? As Art had been working with the McDonald brothers from the start,  once they started opening franchises, they sent Art to Phoenix, then back to California to open a store in Azusa, then one in Pomona. While Art was in Azusa, Ray Kroc became involved. That's when Art came to Fresno and in the long run opened 7 stores here. In 1980, he sold them all back to the corporation.

As far as we can learn through our research, Art now resides in Carmel and enjoys music; playing banjo, mandolin and a keyboard. He enjoys his loving wife and loving children and spends time walking around the Carmel area.

1996 - Joseph Desmond - Hart's, Uncle John's, Wendy's and KFC

Joseph Desmond, owner of JEM Management Corporation and  22 Wendy's restaurants, 15 KFC outlets and a 1,500 acre walnut farm left an amazing legacy when he passed away August 19, 2007.

Joseph was born in 1920 in New York City. His father passed away when he was 5 years old. Due to the Recession, Joseph grew up quickly. He graduated from high school at the age or 15 and joined the work force when his family moved to San Francisco.When he worked at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco, he moved from dishwasher to dining room steward in just one day! As he grew older he married Edna Henbury and together they had two daughters. In 1942, Joseph went into WWII with the Marine Corps and fought at Guadalcanal and other sites in the South Pacific. He was wounded and discharged with an Honorable Discharge.

Eventually, in 1948, he became the manager of Hart's Restaurant in Fresno. He and Edna purchased Hart's in the mid 1950's, selling it in the 1960's.

With his ability as an entrepreneur and having a great sense of what the future was to bring, he risked moving to north Blackstone in 1959 where he opened Uncle John's Pancake House. Talk about a keen sense for the future, he was one of the first ever ten franchisees with KFC and the first franchise owner west of the Mississippi with Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers. Joseph earned a multitude of awards from many associations in Fresno. He earned the Wendy's Dave Thomas Award in 1990. A Google search on  Joseph Desmond will give you much more detail on this forward-thinking successful restauranteur in the Fresno Area.

Stop by soon to learn of more dynamic restaurants and restauranteurs from Fresno's past!