Popular Butler restaurant prepares for final order

The phone calls have been coming in for weeks.

“Some people are crying. They think this place has been like their family,” said Carole Hillard, a bookkeeper at Natili Restaurant & Lounge on Main Street in Butler.

Known for its crystal chandeliers, large mural of Venice, sing-alongs and extensive menu, Natili, a fixture for 75 years, is closing on Sept. 27.

“It's sad, the end of an era. It's pretty much been like my family,” said Julia Tracy, the restaurant's manager.

Customers say they feel the same way.

“It was our regular Friday night date,” Vonnie Ward of Penn said of the outings that she and her husband, Sam Ward, made to Natili for decades. “It is like “Cheers.” It's is like Butler's Cheers. This is a big loss.”

John Natili opened the restaurant in 1939 and passed it on to the next generation of family members when he died in 1978 at age 67. Now, that generation is nearing or past retirement age.

“It's become more than a business. It's a lot of work, and you have to spend your life here,” said Vince Tavolario, 69, a Youngstown native whose wife, Jeannie, is one of John Natili's four daughters.

The family slowed down gradually. For years, the restaurant did a brisk lunch business, which it ended about two years ago when it limited service to just dinner.

“There is nothing else like Natili's in Butler. It's a loss to Downtown to see it close,” said Stan Kosciuszko, president of the Butler County Chamber of Commerce, who used to eat lunch there.

It's unlikely that anything similar will replace Natili, at least right away, said Tavolario. The restaurant is selling its liquor license to the developer of Cranberry Springs, which includes the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex.

John Natili had hoped to become a lawyer, but had to drop out of Duquesne University Law School to help his family.

“My mother got ill, and he had to stop school,” said Natili's daughter Connie Lamanna, who still works at the restaurant.

“He offered 10-cent, spaghetti dishes and sausage sandwiches. He was a very hard worker. He would talk to customers and become their friends,” Tavolario said.

Natili's wife, also named Connie, died at 36 in 1946.

Ward and her husband have eaten at Natili most Friday nights since 1973.

“The menu is great. They offer so much. So is the atmosphere. There will not be another Natili,” she said.

When Ward was hospitalized in 2008 with a rare autoimmune disease, she was shocked at what the restaurant's owners did.

“They showed up at my house with food after I got home. What other restaurant on the planet would have done that?” she asked.

John Natili located the restaurant in the Boos building at the corner of Main and Wayne streets, where it still stands.

“The building was once a grocery store. It was built in 1889, the same year that the Eifel Tower opened,” Tavolario said.

Over the years, Natili bought more and more space. The restaurant now can seat about 200 people. It has 45 employees.

Tavolario, in a note to customers, said the family is sad to close the restaurant, but “it has been difficult for Jeannie, Connie and I to operate as we have all gotten older.”

Speaking to a visitor, he said: “This is hard. We've been here so long that people take us for granted.”

Rick Wills is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-320-7944 or rwills@tribweb.com.