Abelardo “Abe” Ruiz left his small town in Jalisco, Mexico for the big city of Los Angeles when he was just 15 years old. His plan was to work hard enough to support both himself and his family back home.
A friend found an opening for him a job as a dishwasher at an Italian restaurant. Abe says it was the only job available to him at the time, but that didn’t matter. He liked the work and grew to love it as his role expanded in the kitchen.
Four decades later, he owns and operates one of the most beloved Italian restaurants in the Sacramento area.
Anthony’s Italian Cuisine in South Natomas has been serving pasta, pizza and seafood to hungry Sacramentans since 2004. Abe has been in the kitchen nearly every day since the doors opened, cooking customer favorites like tortellini alla panna and cioppino.
“In the beginning it was a little hard because nobody knows me. I mean, nobody knew that I could cook Italian food,” Abe said. “I even remember people told me, ‘Are you sure you know what you are doing?’”
But he did, indeed. Abe’s 40 years in the restaurant business, including over 30 as a head chef, have extinguished any doubt.
LOS ANGELES TO SACRAMENTO
It’s rare anyone’s first job becomes their lifelong passion. But Abe said it all just happened naturally. His hours as a dishwasher were good and the work was engaging. He worked hard, so the cooks liked him and helped him move up. Within six months, Abe was cooking on the line.
The Los Angeles Dodgers were the soundtrack to his first years in the kitchen. Their games played on the radio while he worked. Fernando Valenzuela, a young pitching phenom, had also recently arrived from Mexico. The Dodgers won two championships with Valenzuela in the 1980s. Ruiz is a devout Dodgers fan to this day, and Valenzuela remains his favorite player of all time.
Abe’s talent in the kitchen grew so quickly that his bosses, who were expanding their chain concept across the Southwest, frequently asked him to help open new locations.
“They sent me to different places,” Abe said. “They sent me to Phoenix. They sent me to the Bay Area. And then when they sent me here, for some reason I liked Sacramento and I didn’t want to go back.”
Abe fell in love with Sacramento. He liked how there were open fields wherever he looked. There was so much more space to live and grow compared to the crowds of Los Angeles. He felt it was the perfect place to settle down and start his own family, and eventually, his own restaurant.
He stayed at the chain’s Sacramento location for over a decade. He left and opened a Mexican restaurant as his first independent venture. But within a few years he bought a second restaurant, just a few doors down from the first, and sold the first. While it had been successful, Abe wanted to get back to Italian cooking.
“Each dish, you have to do it in the moment,” Abe said. “It sometimes takes a little longer than Mexican food. Maybe Mexican is easier because normally you have everything cooked. I prefer to do the Italian.”
THE RUIZ FAMILY RESTAURANT
Abe raised five children in Sacramento, and each of them spent countless hours within the walls of Anthony’s Italian Cuisine. In fact, Abe named the restaurant after his eldest son.
Anthony Ruiz says he started washing dishes for his father around age 13, but didn’t take to it quite like Abe once did. He preferred working in the front of the restaurant, and still waits tables whenever he is in town.
“If I didn’t have somebody to watch me, I would have to be at the restaurant. We have a TV in the back,” Anthony said. “And that’s the same with all my other siblings. We all pretty much would be there. And we obviously had a lot of Italian food growing up.”
Anthony is also the namesake of several specials on the menu. The Chicken Anthony and the Veal Anthony are sauteed with sherry, mushrooms and artichoke hearts. Anthony’s Triple Threat is one of the most popular combination meals, consisting of a hearty slice of lasagna, a generous portion of chicken Parmesan and a large scoop of fettuccine Alfredo.
Crystal, Abe’s eldest daughter, started helping around the restaurant when she was 12 years old. As she got older, Crystal learned every aspect of the business. She even helps with accounting and managing payroll.
“When I was 15, that’s when I would literally take over. My dad would go on vacation and I would take care of the restaurant,” Crystal said. “There also were my uncles and stuff, so there was always someone looking over my shoulder, but I would always have it under control.”
Those uncles, as she calls them, aren’t necessarily blood relatives. A couple of them are Abe’s childhood friends. She also says new chefs have been hired over the years, but eventually they all became family too.
OPERATING IN A PANDEMIC
The family-centric business model of Anthony’s Italian Cuisine is a big draw for customers. But it isn’t just a nice way to run a restaurant. It’s also a big reason the business has been able to weather the storm of the coronavirus pandemic.
Many chains or even larger single-location eateries have wait staff that rely on hours and tips to pay the bills. But the waiters at Anthony’s are Abe’s family, and they can all do a little bit of everything. When the pandemic forced restaurants to stop dine-in services, the wait staff didn’t lose hours so much as just change roles.
“At first it was pretty difficult because we lost more than 50 percent of our sales in the first few weeks,” Crystal said. “Once we got on DoorDash and Postmates and Uber Eats, that has helped us a lot. Our sales went up drastically with deliveries.”
A year ago, almost all of their business was dine-in. Families loved to spend their evenings there, sharing plates and drinking wine. They had regulars that would try something new each week. The Ruiz family loves interacting with their customers, so delivery was never a priority.
But after delivery became a necessity, the qualities of Anthony’s Italian Cuisine transferred to delivery well. The regulars didn’t want to lose their favorite restaurant, so they ordered often and tipped well.
The big portions of pasta turned out to be great comfort food in a year where comfort was in high demand. Anthony’s Italian Cuisine, unlike many other restaurants, did just fine financially in the past year.
“We are doing the same as before,” Abe said. “Sometimes better.”
OTHER DIFFICULTIES IN 2020
However, the pandemic wasn’t the only obstacle the restaurant faced in 2020. In June, Abe suffered a brain aneurysm. He spent three weeks in an ICU, but has since made a full recovery.
It happened while Abe was watching his son, Leonardo, try out for a travel baseball team. Leonardo has inherited his father’s love for the sport and for Dodgers.
“Without him it was tough, especially for my mom,” Leonardo said. “She had to work double the hours she worked. We all did, pretty much.”
Abe missed a total of three months of work. The restaurant stayed open through extra effort from his wife, Patty, and his children.
Crystal ran the day-to-day operations. She even had to remember all of her father’s recipes. She said her dad is not the type to write things down. He teaches his cooks by showing them. If they get it, they get it. If they don’t, they don’t.
But they made it through together.
“Definitely a miracle,” Crystal said. “Now he’s back to work like nothing. He’s back to working seven days, 12 or 14 hour days. It’s like it didn’t happen.”
COUNTING BLESSINGS AND SUCCESSES
The family wanted to give Abe a break following his return to the restaurant. They wanted to close one day a week, but Abe wasn’t having it. He loves it there. When he is at home, he just thinks about getting back to the restaurant.
“He’s very, very hard-working,” Anthony said. “He’s been working since an early age. He sacrificed a lot for us when he came here, and he still does now.”
By September, Abe was back to doing what he always does: Working hard, making delicious food, surrounded by family, listening to Dodgers games.
It was a happy ending to 2020 for the Ruiz family, especially when the Dodgers won their first World Series since the Valenzuela era.
Leonardo, who is now the same age his father was when he first came to America, watched the playoffs with his dad. He says, unsurprisingly, that Abe was at the restaurant when the Dodgers won it all. Though, he did excuse himself from his work briefly to gather his feelings.
“Of course my dad denies it, but we saw some tears,” Crystal said. “We definitely saw some happy tears.”
Tell us more
Know of a mom-and-pop operation navigating through these challenging times? A restaurant, a hardware store, a book store, a bar? Email your idea to jpatrick@sacbee.com and jdavidson@sacbee.com.
This story was originally published January 27, 2021 at 7:39 AM.
Dining and Cooking