Pen & Ink

2008   

Nick Mancini opened ‘Mancini's’ back in 1948 along West Seventh Street just west of downtown.  Only blocks away, down along the Mississippi’s Upper Levee, Saint Paul's Italian neighborhood was still thriving back then.  In the summer walking through the neighborhood, you could smell Italian bread baking in the big outdoor ovens and see tomatoes and peppers growing in family gardens.  

Every Sunday after church, the Mancini family got together for a big pasta dinner.  With so many grandparents, aunts and uncles and kids in the house, it was never a quiet meal.  Afterwards, the men would go out to play bocce, talk & drink their homemade wine.  Mancini's Char House at 531 West Seventh Street, 651-224-7347, prides itself in great food and service with a personal touch.