CHRIS MAYER
Living Assistant
It wasn’t exactly an ideal situation. The 20-year-old arrived at LAX with little more than his own clothes. Having never been to America, he spoke very little English. All he had was a lifelong passion: cooking.
Today, the grungy kid in blue jeans is a distant memory — 43-year-old Lino Savoia is a father of two and the owner of his fifth restaurant, a Malibu Italian establishment called Lino Ristorante and Bar.
Savoia grew up on the outskirts of Rome in an area known as Pomezia. He began cooking for his family at age 9, and by 13, he worked picking up after skeet shooters. He would later move on to become a cabana boy, grape and cantaloupe picker, construction worker and altar boy.
“I didn’t last long at that,” Savoia said of his days beside the altar.
At age 21, he moved to London and began waiting tables for several restaurants – including some tableside flambé cooking, he said.
After three years in London, Savoia decided to spend a year traveling through India, Thailand, Hong Kong, Australia and the South Pacific with two of his best friends. He said the Taj Mahal and children of Thailand impressed him most.
“There was just something in their eyes and in their smiles,” he said.
The travels eventually brought the trio to Los Angeles.
“We had sneakers, blue jeans, dirty white T-shirts and (weighed) about 50 pounds less,” Savoia said. The three immediately found jobs in restaurants, rented out a one-bedroom apartment and opened a shared bank account.
A year of restaurant work led Lino and his friends to pool their money and open an establishment of their own. In January 1989, they opened Café Delfini in Santa Monica.
Two years later, in December 1990, Lino met a woman after working at the restaurant one night. Her name was Samantha.
“He showed up at our party at 1 (o’clock) reeking of fish, and I knew this was the man for me,” she said. The two were married two years later, on Christmas Eve 1992.
Over the next few years, Savoia and his two friends opened three more restaurants in the Los Angeles area, including one in Fred Segal, a premium fashion store.
In an industry where restaurants often fail after their first year, Savoia attributes his success to one thing: determination.
“I like to work in restaurants,” he said. “It’s all I want to do, all I ever wanted to do.”
Savoia’s life changed when his first child, Giacomo, was born in October 1994. His daughter, Lila, came three years later, and he began to realize he could give the family a sense of togetherness that he never experienced as a child.
“I didn’t have a very close family,” he said. “My parents both had to work a lot, and those were different times.”
So he sold his shares in his other restaurants and began making preparations to open a fifth. In August 2005, Lino Restaurante and Bar opened next to the Old Malibu Court House. It has become a second home for Savoia and his family, with all of them helping out in different ways.
Don’t be surprised if the hostess is 7-year-old Lila. Lino and Giacomo may be cooking up a new pasta dish. Samantha keeps a steady eye over it while organizing, calculating, taking inventory and calming Savoia down when the usually jolly man burns himself and becomes an Italian Fuhrer.
As Savoia recounts his whole experience, he grins.
“I am most proud, first off, that I managed to stay married, and secondly of this restaurant,” he said. “It is the beginning or our family’s growth. We are going to grow with this restaurant.”
10-27-2005
