Biba Caggiano, a seminal figure in the Sacramento food scene whose midtown Italian restaurantbearing her first name put the state capital on the culinary map, died Thursday morning at her Fabulous 40s home surrounded by her children, her husband Vincent and other loved ones.

Caggiano was 82 and had lived with Alzheimer’s disease in her final years. It’s a cruel affliction that restricted her speech but not her buoyant personality or her unyielding instinct to be a loving host to the patrons who beat a path to her restaurant door at the corner of 28th and Capitol Avenue. Her family said Caggiano, who died at 4:18 a.m., had also been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.