Broadway performer Lou Giovannetti only planned to stay in Southern California for six weeks to shoot a pilot for NBC. But he fell in love with Manhattan Beach. “At the time, it was a small, sleepy little town, and it was wonderful,” he says.
Giovannetti purchased a local bar, and after juggling life in New York City and Southern California, he made a permanent life here with his wife and two children. Over the next 12 years, The SideDoor served as a local favorite, where Giovannetti met many of the people who lived, worked or owned a business in Manhattan Beach.
Today he and his wife, Grace, a certified sommelier, own and manage the award-winning Primo Italia. The restaurant, located on Hawthorne Boulevard in Torrance, serves authentic Italian cuisine informed by the couple’s Italian heritage.
“I have an amazing chef, and we have a lot of fun,” he says. “We do wine dinners and different off-menu things that keep everybody creatively excited.”
Primo Italia received Marchio Q certification from the Italy-America Chamber of Commerce West, which recognizes quality and hospitality standards of Italian restaurants around the world. “It’s an acknowledgment of being true to exceptional service and the Italian way,” Giovannetti says.
Relationships with customers and staff make all that effort worthwhile. Some employees have worked with the couple for more than a decade. COVID-19 prevented indoor dining, but Giovannetti never considered closing the business. The restaurant prepared meals for pickup and delivery during the worst of the pandemic and later opened an outdoor patio.
Primo Italia donated more than 3,000 meals during COVID-19 to such hospitals as Torrance Memorial and Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Hospital and to first responders at local firehouses and police stations. The restaurant also prepared weekly meals for Joan’s Wish List, a nonprofit supporting domestically abused women and their children.
“I want to be clear that four different customers stepped up to help us financially when they saw what we were doing,” Giovannetti says.
Primo Italia has helped raise funds for the victims of the Palos Verdes landslides and regularly provides donations or hosts events for community organizations such as the Boys and Girls Club, cancer support groups and area schools. “When something is needed, you try to rally and mobilize,” Giovannetti says. “You can have a business and still effect some change and put a smile on people’s faces.”
He also donates his talents as a singer. In his previous career, Giovannetti performed in Damn Yankees with Jerry Lewis, both on Broadway and in London’s West End. He appeared in plays ranging from Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew to Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge and made television appearances in Will & Grace, Charmed and NYPD Blue before transitioning out of acting.
But he still sings regularly at the restaurant and for community events, favoring Sinatra tunes. He recently performed “Fly Me to the Moon” at Torrance Memorial’s Centennial Celebration.
“Running a restaurant is like putting on a show every night,” he says. “It’s the same energy.”
