Gene Cioni: Calgary

Cioni Dept: As written in the book Spaghetti Western by his daughter Maria Cioni, he opened it at 111 4th Street N.E., on the edge of Calgary's largely Italian Riverside now Bridgeland community, but within a stone's throw of Calgary's bustling downtown, according to Vancouver Sun. But Cioni also wanted to stay close to his Italian neighbourhood, to the people he thought would be his main customers. So the spot just north of the river seemed to straddle both the Italian community and the business centre and when Gene Cioni opened Calgary's first Italian restaurant - Gene's Spaghetti Parlour - in 1949, he hedged his bets. Cioni knew that interest in Italian food was growing in the nonItalian population and, with the city in the midst of another oil boom, the economy was looking good. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.