Louis Daigneault was 7 years old when he learned how to bread veal on top of tomato boxes in the cozy kitchen of Il Camino Italian Restaurant, and his older brother, Rick, was 12 when he and their other siblings were trained in making homemade pasta.

“We were great at cracking eggs,” Rick Daigneault recalled last week. In 1970, the Daigneaults’ parents, Jack and Frances (Ciccolini), purchased the Italian restaurant on 555 Central St. from Attilio and Ilda Antonioni. After a short period of transition, Il Camino opened under the Daigneaults’ ownership on Jan. 2, 1971, and has been a city staple since.