Chef Francesco Lucatorto and his wife and business partner, Francesca Pistorio, thought they might be stuck in Italy. There are, of course, worse fates than living out your days with family along the coast in Liguria, but they’d traveled there last summer planning to stay only a few weeks and then return to Los Angeles to finally open a bricks-and-mortar restaurant. They had lasagna to bake and eager customers awaiting their return.

A global pandemic, an expired visa and an international travel ban upended everything. Lucatorto and Pistorio had to hit pause on building a permanent space for Ceci’s Oven, their underground Echo Park pasta operation. Ceci’s Gastronomia, a cozy marketplace in Silver Lake with prepared foods and Italian specialties all inspired by nonne — Italian grandmothers — finally opened in this month. But the journey was riddled with detours.