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From Amish Country to Beverly Hills: The journey of restaurateur Pasquale Vericella
By LA Stories Staff Los Angeles
PUBLISHED 6:00 AM PT Jun. 10, 2024
Growing up in Amish country in Pennsylvania, Pasquale Vericella and his family lived simply.
His father was a mechanic who worked on farming equipment, and his mother took care of the house and family.
Vericella says he gained his understanding of food and cooking from his Italian grandmother, mother and aunts, who were always in the kitchen, cooking up recipes from their homeland of Italy.
Vericella kept a garden and learned that food was a celebration of life and should be shared with everyone.
“All of them were great cooks,” he said, “the recipes, everything that they made was with love. It was all that passion.”
On the latest episode of “LA Stories with Giselle Fernandez,” Vericella opens up about how he took his family recipes and lessons from the kitchen all the way to Beverly Hills, where he opened his famed restaurant, Il Cielo.
Known for its classic Northern Italian cuisine and romantic atmosphere, Il Cielo quickly became a favorite among locals, tourists and celebrities.
Frank Sinatra was known to visit, and Vericella says he even hosted Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr shortly after John Lennon’s death. His secret? Treat everyone — including his staff — like family.
“I never thought that it would be as successful as it’s been,” he said. “We have about 60 employees here… Honestly, the staff are just like my kids. They love what we do, and they just go out of their way to help people.”
Not only is Vericella honoring his family through his restaurant, he’s also honoring his parents’ philanthropic nature, but choosing to share the successes he’s found in life.
Every Thanksgiving, he closes his restaurant in order to give those living at the Good Shepherd Center for Homeless Women and Children a beautiful Thanksgiving dinner. He also supports programs like the “On the Bus” initiative, ensuring children of the incarcerated can visit their mothers on Mother’s Day. His upbringing instilled in him a sense of responsibility to give back and share his American dream with others.
“Aside from all this beauty that I’ve been blessed to have, there’s nothing more important to me than those kids.”