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>with her son Joel Minadeo at Dinucci's Italian Dinners in Valley Ford, California,
Today she and her husband, Enrique Garcia, own and operate Dinucci’s, with help from family members. The Garcias’ 21-year-old daughter, Geena Garcia-Wagner, manages the business.Fourth-generation family member Jasmine Minadeo assists in the kitchen; at 14, she’s the youngest family member carrying on her great-grandparents’ legacy.
Secret family recipes
The food, of course, is the main attraction at Dinucci’s, and the minestrone gets top billing. With a recipe perfected by the Wagners over time, the soup is especially popular with coastal travelers who typically buy a gallon to go. Several years back, members of the Los Angeles Police Department preordered 20 gallons of takeout minestrone when they were visiting the area.
The recipe “is a family secret,” Jeanne Garcia said, “and it will be until we’re all gone.” She’ll only say Dinucci’s uses the freshest ingredients, like produce from family-?owned Imwalle Gardens in Santa Rosa, a vendor for 50 years.
Dinucci’s menu includes steak, poultry, seafood and pasta prepared by Enrique Garcia, who shadowed Eugene Wagner in the kitchen.
A Bolognese sauce heavy with meat also was perfected by the Wagners and remains a staple of many dishes, like baked lasagna. The chicken cacciatore follows the recipe developed decades ago by Mabel Dinucci. Dinner entrees include soup, salad, bread and an antipasto plate, all old-school Italian.
Several tables are designated for regulars, with carved wooden signs hanging at select locations: “The Spaletta Table,” “Bill’s Table,” “Blaine and Christine” and “VIP.”
Celebrities from athletes to movie stars have discovered Dinucci’s, with Joe Montana, George Seifert, John Travolta and Clint Eastwood among them.
Actress Tippi Hedren, known for her role in Alfred Hitchcock’s Bodega Bay-based film “The Birds,” has been there, too.
When artists Christo and his wife, Jeanne-Claude, erected the Running Fence along stretches of coastal Sonoma and Marin counties in 1976, they’d dine at Dinucci’s.
“He’d come here and have lunch and the place would fill up,” said Don Wagner, the youngest of Betty and Eugene Wagner’s four children.
He said the real credit goes to local residents who supported his parents as they got started in the restaurant business, relying on word of mouth to bring in patrons.
His father, who’d had a career as a heavy construction equipment mechanic before buying Dinucci’s, insisted all 110 seats in the dining room would fill up once people had a taste of what was on the menu.
“In the slow times, the locals kept us alive,” Wagner said.
“There were rough times in the beginning.” Some patrons even placed bets the family wouldn’t succeed, he said.
Wagner recalls a time during his youth “that was before 911 and I was taught to call the sheriff if the Hell’s Angels showed up.”
Laidback atmosphere
Things today “are mellow,” said his brother-in-law, Enrique Garcia. Bar patrons and diners are mostly local farmers and ranchers, or travelers heading to and from the nearby coast.
Wagner, along with his sister, Jeanne Garcia, and their siblings, Joe Wagner and Dolores Hanson, at various times helped their parents in the family business, as have extended family.
In the early days, Jeanne Garcia said, “You could throw a bowling ball through the place and not hit anyone.”
Eventually, the restaurant began to thrive. Geena Garcia-Wagner is hopeful the nostalgic destination will continue to draw diners for generations to come.
“I just appreciate the history here and would like to carry that on forever,” she said. “The locals appreciate it almost as much as we do.”
The odds aren’t always favorable in the restaurant industry, the family said, and challenges can be compounded working with family members.
“That’s hard to do,” Enrique Garcia said, proud to share in 50 years of the Wagner family’s success.
https://www.petaluma360.com/article/news/a-golden-anniversary-for-dinuccis-of-valley-ford/?artslide=15