Sesto Ramadori, owner of Da Sesto Italiano Restaurant and Market, also owns Florida Pasta Co. that provides fresh pasta to restaurants and hotels all over the state.
PINELLAS PARK – Da Sesto Italiano Restaurant and Market has been open only four weeks and already it has a large following of customers who arrive from all parts of the Tampa Bay area.
Located at 7199 66th St., owner Sesto Ramadori has a solid background in the restaurant business.
“Italian food is very regional,” Ramadori said. “In northern Italy where it’s cold the sauces are heavy, but they are lighter in Naples.”
Trained as a mechanical engineer, Ramadori started in the food business when he helped buy his mother, Angela, a restaurant in Montreal. It was an instant success and soon Ramadori was operating two eateries. He sold them when warmer climate lured him to Florida.
Quality control over everything, from buying the vegetables to the actual cooking, is the key to his success. He also owns the Clearwater-based Florida Pasta Co. that produces fresh pasta for restaurants and hotels all over Florida. His wife, Micheline, runs that business while Ramadori works the restaurant.
“This is a market concept business,” he said. “People can purchase the ingredients here to make at home the food on the menu.”
With two chefs and other employees, Ramadori imports wines, special olive oils and other items. The red and white wine list is extensive. They go well with such specialties as Olive Ascolane, an appetizer named after his mother’s home town in Italy, or Tiramisu al Mascarpone, an award-winning dessert.
The lunch and dinner menus include the Classico sandwich, Gnocchi potato dumplings and a variety of pastas served with sauces, spices and other ingredients. The $4.95 lunch menu includes a buffet-style pasta bar with soup and salad.
“People appreciate quality and that is why they return,“ Ramadori said.
When not operating a restaurant Ramadori is involved in community activities such as managing a soccer team and putting together the annual bazaar at St. Jude’s Catholic Church in St. Petersburg.
On March 31 he is donating the food at a fundraiser for Hannah Deal of Largo who suffers from Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma, a brain stem tumor. The event will take place at St. Dunstan’s Episcopal Church, 10888 126th Ave.
“Working on projects is a way of giving back to the community,” Ramadori said.
![[Image]](/content_images/030907_par-07.jpg)
