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Oklahoma City restaurant’s key dynamic is heritage

 
By Dave Cathey | Published: October 21, 2009    Comment on this article Leave a comment


Vito’s Ristorante, 7521 N May, is named after Cathy Cummings’ Uncle Vito. An enormous black-and-white photograph of the man who inspired the name hangs on the wall, flanked by other framed family photos.

photo - Chicken Marsala at Vito’s Ristorante in Oklahoma City. Photo By John Clanton, The Oklahoman
Chicken Marsala at Vito’s Ristorante in Oklahoma City. Photo By John Clanton, The Oklahoman

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Vito’s Ristorante
→Address: 7521 N May Ave.

→Phone: 848-4867.

→Hours: 5 to 10 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays.

→Coming attractions: As if the family atmosphere wasn’t thick enough, the restaurant is in the midst of giving birth to a new family member. The Cummingses are splitting Vito’s space to open a new "street food” concept. Some construction has begun, but the licensing process has been slow. They hoped to open in November but said it could be early January now.

"No problem,” Cathy Cummings said. "It’ll open when it opens, and when it does, it’ll be great.”

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Family and food were synonymous in Cummings’ upbringing, and she’s applied that dynamic to her career and her own family.

Her mother and both her aunts grew up supported by a grocery store in Kansas City. That store begat Italian restaurants for each of them at one point or another over 35 years. Cummings began working in the family business at age 10.

She married chef Sean Cummings, with whom she moved to Oklahoma City in the early 1990s.

"We opened Boca Boca together,” she said. "And I fired myself from there after three years. I kept trying to add Italian dishes to the menu, and Sean told me if I wanted to do that, I should open my own place. So I did.”

Six years later, Vito’s is going strong with a staff that’s been with her since the restaurant opened. Her three daughters, ages 15 to 22, all work at the restaurant — sometimes in the kitchen, sometimes out front.

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Related Topics: Culture and Lifestyle, Food and Cooking, Italian Food and Cooking, Ethnic and Regional Cuisines



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