BATON ROUGE — For nearly four decades, DiGiulio Brothers Italian Café has been serving classic Italian dishes just off Perkins Road near the Overpass, becoming a neighborhood institution and a familiar stop along the route of the annual Wearing of the Green Parade.

The restaurant first opened its doors in 1987 when brothers John and Fred DiGiulio signed a lease to run the café despite having little restaurant experience. What they did have was a love for cooking and family recipes passed down through generations.

"Well, my brother Fred, who passed away about 10 years ago, it was really his idea," John DiGiulio said.

Inside the restaurant, that family history is reflected not just in the décor, including photos of relatives, but also in the food. DiGiulio says the recipes were influenced by the cooking traditions of his grandmother and mother.

"My grandma was a great Italian cook. And then my mom learned from her, and so we've always liked to cook," he said.

From building out the kitchen themselves to perfecting their red sauce, the brothers created a restaurant that would become a longtime staple in Baton Rouge.

Mike Johnson has been part of that story since the beginning. He started bartending the year the restaurant opened, and eventually met John DiGiulio's daughter, Raina. The two later married and now run the restaurant together.

"It's my favorite food. What can I say, Italian food," Johnson joked. "Just pay me in food."

Johnson says the success of the restaurant comes down to consistency and sticking with what works. The menu focuses on classic Italian staples, red sauce, veal and chicken parmigiana, eggplant dishes and pizza, made the same way they've always been.

"We follow the original recipes. We don't try to go outside of the realm," Johnson said.

Among the popular dishes are eggplant crispers, a fried eggplant appetizer topped with goat cheese, capers, olives and tomatoes, along with the chicken parmigiana — a breaded chicken breast served over spaghetti with house-made sauce. The restaurant also serves a three-cheese and spinach manicotti stuffed with ricotta, parmesan and romano cheeses.

The kitchen keeps one simple rule in mind when preparing those dishes.

"We just can't run out of red sauce or meatballs," Johnson said.

The restaurant's location has also tied it closely to one of Baton Rouge's most popular St. Patrick's Day traditions. DiGiulio Brothers sits along the route of the Wearing of the Green Parade and has been there for nearly as long as the parade itself.
Johnson says when the crowds arrive, the atmosphere inside the restaurant turns festive.

"It's like a Friday night with the bar being packed, it's fun," he said.

Today, John DiGiulio is retired, but he still stops by the restaurant often, usually enjoying a meal while watching the next generation of his family continue the business he and his brother built.