Great eats: Giuseppe's, a Chester mainstay

Giuseppe's Trattoria in the Chester Springs Shopping Mall is celebrating its 33rd anniversary, and it always has served the kind of great food that has made it a neighborhood staple for decades.

Giuseppe's is family owned, by Giuseppe and Maria Sica along with Michael and Antonietta Iannaco.

"We've been serving the community for 33 years, and we're a family owned restaurant," says Antonietta Iannaco. "We are famous for our pizza, and our original recipes from Italy with all natural ingredients."

Iannaco and Sica come to the shop every day and watch over the place to make sure things run smoothly on a daily basis.

"We're the wives," Maria Sica says with a laugh. "The better half."

Both Iannaco and Sica pride themselves on Giuseppe's being a family restaurant, and over the course of time, they've seen their community grow along with them.

"We have seen kids grow up and create their own families and bring their own children in, too," Sica says, "They feel like part of our family. You know them, you know the parents, you know their grandparents, and now, you know the kids."

Giuseppe's, which has a wide variety of menu items from which to choose, is primarily known for its stellar pizza, which comes in many different varieties.

"We have the traditional cheese, pepperoni and sausage pizza, as well as a wide variety of gourmet pizza, which includes eggplant, tortellini and margarita," Iannaco says.

"We can even do seafood on the pizza — anything you can think of," Sica says.

In addition to pizza creations, Giuseppe's has a wide assortment of other menu items as well.

"We serve traditional Italian cuisine such as chicken parm, chicken Francese and veal dinners," Iannaco says. "We have seafood dinners as well, even homemade lasagna, manicotti and baked ziti. All our dinner entrees include soup or salad and bread."

"We also serve subs, paninis, wraps, salads and soups that are made daily," Sica says. "Even an extensive dessert menu. And prices are reasonable."

"We also do weekly specialties," Iannaco adds. "On Mondays, we have two large plain pizzas for $18; Tuesdays we offer 10 percent percent discounts for senior citizens; and Wednesday is our pasta night, with specials where you can choose from a variety of sauces with your choice of pasta for $8.99."

The restaurant is spacious and allows for big parties. The tables are spaced out enough so that you don't feel on top of other diners, but close enough so that you can lean over and talk to somebody if you wish. But the look you see in the shop today isn't the look that it always had.

"In 1996 we remodeled the interior of Giuseppe's and expanded the menu to better accommodate our customers," says Antonietta Iannaco.

Why has the shop stayed open for so long when many other places have folded? Iannaco has a rather simple explanation for that: "We like to hear customer feedback and make every effort to assure quality and consistency with our products. We strive to accommodate everyone who comes in and do our best to make our valued customers happy."