Cultural showcase Italian heritage will be amply represented at the 81st Holiday Folk Fair International. The venerable event will take place from Nov. 22-24 at the Exposition Center at Wisconsin State Fair Park in West Allis, Wisconsin. The folk-dance troupes Tradizione Vivente and I Bei Bambini will perform throughout the weekend, and the Italian Community Center of Milwaukee will sponsor a glassblowing display featuring products from Murano, Italy, as well as the artwork of masters like Michelangelo, da Vinci and Botticelli. Cannoli, tiramisù, bomboniere and other dolci will be served in the World Café. For more, click here. Groundbreaking chef …

Our Good Vibes feature spotlights websites, blogs, videos and podcast from around the world that celebrate Italy’s inimitable spirit. If you have a favorite online offering you’d like to share, send it to info@franoi.com. For more, follow us on Facebook. Italian bassist shows why he’s a rising star Next-gen bassist Giuseppe Cucchiara’s band can be witnessed in all its splendor on this clip, with Ben Solomon on tenor saxophone, Adam Arruda on drums and Chris McCarthy on piano filling out the ensemble. This extended version of the title track of Cucchiara’s new album, “Music for the Soul,” includes Simon Moullier, …

Buona Companies brought its “dual concept” dining experience to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, this summer with the side-by-side opening of Buona and The Original Rainbow Cone. Owned by the Buonavolanto family, which opened the first Buona Beef location in Berwyn in 1981, Buona Companies now also include Beyond Catering and Authentic Brands of Chicago in addition to Buona and Original Rainbow Cone. It all started when Joe and Peggy Buonavolanto took out a $10,000 second mortgage on their house to start the business. “Their dream was to have their kids work side by side to create a business that could someday …

Chicago’s La Gondola restaurant closed after 40 years, but its staple dishes live on. Chef Jose Rivera, who worked at La Gondola for 10 years, incorporated much of the Italian restaurant’s menu at his own restaurant, Mirella’s Tavern, 2056 W. Division St. “I am very good friends with the La Gondola owner, and he asked me if I wanted to take over the brand,” Rivera said. “I said, ‘Why not?’ I know the food very well. I created part of the menu.” La Gondola’s owner’s plan to reopen the restaurant in suburban Tinley Park never came to fruition, Rivera said.

Roberto Linguanotto, the pastry chef credited by many for inventing the Italian dessert tiramisù, died at age 81 in June. Linguanotto is said to have created the dish in the 1970s in the kitchen of the restaurant Le Beccherie in Treviso, in the Veneto region, in collaboration with Alba Campeol, the restaurant owner’s wife, The Washington Post reported. Linguanotto claimed he “accidentally dropped mascarpone in a bowl of eggs and sugar, liked the taste, and the pair worked from there, adding coffee and ladyfingers.” Tiramisù was added to the restaurant’s menu in 1972, eventually spreading across Italy and the world. …

The family-style Italian restaurant chain Buca di Beppo filed for bankruptcy in August after having closed 30 restaurants nationwide since the COVID-19 pandemic. The chain’s local outlet in Orland Park was among 13 locations that closed in late July, leaving the company with 44 locations, including only one Chicago-area restaurant, in suburban Lombard. The company was founded in Minneapolis in 1993 and is now headquartered in Orlando, Florida. It attributed its problems to rising labor and food costs and lower demand from consumers, but had experienced declining sales and unit count since 2014, according to Restaurant Business.

Blue Island Mayor Fred Bilotto joined local and state officials in August to welcome Orlandino Greco, mayor of Castrolibero, Calabria, to Casa Italia in Stone Park. The get-together was organized by Tony Turano and the Calabresi in America Organization. Blue Island is sister cities with Castrolibero as well as Ripacandida, Basilicata, and Estancia de Animas, Mexico. “Earlier this year, my family and I had the honor of meeting Mayor Greco and his family during our trip through Italy, and it was a pleasure to return the favor and welcome his family to our community,” says Bilotto, who also visited Ripacandida …

Like so many other Chicago-area Italian Americans, Ron Onesti traces his stateside roots to the legendary Taylor Street Little Italy on the city’s Near West Side. His father’s parents settled there when they arrived from Italy, his father grew up and made lasting memories there, and Onesti was born in the neighborhood and went to school at St. Callistus until the third grade. As a result, Onesti has long harbored a dream to create a museum celebrating the countless Italian immigrants who risked so much to start a new life in America, and to locate that museum within the epicenter …

The Des Plaines Theatre was once again transformed into fashion week in New York for the Columbus Day Queen Contest, hosted on July 21 by the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans. Stadium-style seats were replaced with an expansive stage and runway flanked by chairs filled with audience members. Among 15 worthy contenders, Ava Selvaggi was named 2024 Columbus Day Queen. A recent graduate of Miami University, Selvaggi earned a bachelor’s degree in graphic design with a minor in marketing, and is currently working for Digitas ad agency as an associate art director. Selvaggi is from a large extended family …

Mano a Mano, an Italian trattoria from husband-and-wife chefs Doug Psaltis and Hsing Chen, opened this summer in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood. The menu for the restaurant at 2534 N. Milwaukee Ave. includes appetizers such as salumi misti and tiny fried calamari; vegetables such as zucchini flowers and eggplant cutlets; and handmade pastas such as pappardelle with braised rabbit and Taggiasca olives, and agnolotti with sweet peas, spicy butter and smoked caciocavallo. Psaltis and Chen also operate Andros Taverna and Asador Bastian in Chicago, both under the umbrella of Eat Well Hospitality.  For more, click here.