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KD Country: LoBello's Italian Restaurant

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Jul 6, 2009 7:34 pm US/Eastern

KD Country: LoBello's Italian Restaurant

Reporting
Dave Crawley
CORAOPOLIS (KDKA) ― The tangy scent of tomato sauce leads to a yellow brick building in Coraopolis.

LoBello's Italian Restaurant has served pasta to perfection for 65 years.

"Everything here is fresh." Rose LoBello says as stops to talk with a couple making short work of a pair of pasta dinners. "No microwave. No steamer back there."

The 79-year-old owner has worked here ever since her parents, Italian immigrants Ross and Katie Rowe, opened up as a hot dog stand in 1944.

"I was 14," Rose recalls. "I was in school. But he took me out of school and put me in here. We were open 24 hours a day, seven days a week."

And 65 years later, she's cut back to six days a week.

"This is gnocci." Ben LoBello says gesturing toward a tray filled with noodles made from potatoes.

He's the man who runs the kitchen from a formula that his mother Rose learned from her mother.

"We've really made an attempt to stick with those original recipes," he insists. "My grandmother's and grandfather's and my mother's. So we stick with those because they work. My mother won't let me change anyway."

Neither will the customers, who are encouraged to make their mark. Literally.

Rose provides a special tool for guests, like music legend Lou Christie, to carve their names on the wooden booths.

Rose LoBello savors every hug from her guests. A ruptured blood vessel in her brain led to emergency surgery four years ago. But soon, she was back at work.

"It's love," she explains. "I love this restaurant, and I love the people. I'm never going to retire. Never."

LoBello's continues to thrive, with a long-time recipe - and a little dash of love.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.