Rocco's: twelve seats, 1951, and a seventy-fifth year

1951 — present · 537 North St. Louis Boulevard

The founding couple: Rocco's is the longest-running restaurant in this record with its founding documented whole, and the document is its founder's obituary in the Tribune (September 9, 2008), read with the house's own history. Rocco Ameduri was born July 22, 1918, in Gioiosa Ionica, Reggio Calabria; in 1946 he married Julia Simeri, whose family had immigrated to South Bend in 1930, and in 1948 they settled here. He cooked in a Notre Dame dining hall; she waitressed. In 1951 they opened Rocco's at 537 North St. Louis Boulevard, with her parents, at twelve seats. A second, upscale house, The New Rocco's, ran from 1957 to 1965 alongside it.

The succession: Warren Verteramo — Guerino, also from Reggio Calabria — began in the Rocco's kitchen in 1969, and Warren and Linda Verteramo have operated the house since 1991; they expanded it in 1996 to about 150 seats. The twelve-seat room of 1951 thus stands in 2026 in its seventy-fifth year, under the second Calabrian family to run it. One claim is deliberately not made here: that Rocco's served South Bend's first pizza. The house's own history, in the material reached, does not claim it, and no carrier for a city first was found; the claim is neither printed nor denied, only named as unmade in this section's note.

Sources:

1. South Bend Tribune, obituary of Rocco Ameduri (9 September 2008) — the Gioiosa Ionica birth of 22 July 1918; the 1946 marriage to Julia Simeri; the 1948 settlement; the Notre Dame dining hall and the waitressing; the 1951 opening at twelve seats.
2. Rocco's, house history — 537 North St. Louis Boulevard; The New Rocco's, 1957–1965; Warren Verteramo's 1969 start in the kitchen; the Verteramos' operation since 1991; the 1996 expansion to about 150 seats.