For nearly 60 years, the Manzella family has cooked Italian food in Champaign. Before he opened his own restaurant, Frank Manzella made pizzas at the old KAMS, using his own recipe. His from-scratch pizza was so popular that he started his own business, first selling home-baked pizzas out of his vehicle.

He opened his first brick-and-mortar restaurant on Locust Street in 1960, and he later added a second location on campus that his father operated. In 1966, Manzella combined both restaurants into one space on First Street called Manzella’s Italian Patio.