DINING OUT
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4
BY WILLI MILLER | PHOTOS BY MARK DOLAN
It’s all about family at Villa Nova Italian
Restaurant in Vero Beach. Not only is every
position filled by a family member (with the
exception of occasional helpers in season), but
patrons are treated like family.
Owners Gaetano and Stella Gerenini are
backed up by daughter Sherry, nephew Luigi,
and Stella’s mother, Theresa, who takes care of
the bookkeeping. They all sit down to a family
dinner before opening the restaurant for the
evening.
Sharing opinions is commonplace among Villa
Nova patrons. One table of diners might share
their sentiments about the dishes they’ve
ordered with the diners next to them and then
share their neighbors’ dessert selection.
Part-time residents Albert and Diane DiFiore,
who spend most of the year in Rhode Island,
were steered toward Villa Nova by friends of
Italian descent who consider the food some of
the best they’ve had. In Vero Beach for several
months, the DiFiores take friends and family to
their favorite restaurant whenever they can.
Recently, their daughter and son-in-law, Debra
and Leo Sheridan, along with their children,
Sarah, 10, Jason, 8, and Maggie, 3, joined the
older couple for a festive family dinner there. “I
have an Irish son-in-law with an Italian stomach,”
DiFiore said. Even the youngest had a
favorite dish, meatballs.
Stella likes to tell people, “When you come to
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