Mullen remembers a landmark restaurant

Date: 3/1/2018

WORCESTER – For Lauren Scibelli Mullin, her book “Memories of Ciro’s” came about through a gradual process of writing down recipes that were featured at the iconic Springfield restaurant and recording memories.

“I’d put it down and left it for years,” she explained to Reminder Publications.

At a point in her life when she had the time, she said, “A friend encouraged me to pick it back up and I started diving into it.”

The result is the book’s sales have been “heartening” to Mullin, who now lives in Worcester.

The book recalls how the restaurant was started about 1965 by her grandparents Albert and Rose Scibelli and that it was a truly family business with her parents, cousins, aunts and uncles helping out.

“The food was authentic Italian,” she said. “The extensive menu was perfected over the years.”

The book also features many of the recipes that were developed at Ciro’s over its lengthy history.

Although she never worked there herself, Mullin said, “I spent a lot of time downtown.” While she pursued a career in science, she readily admitted, “I loved learning the cooking stuff.”

She recalled that Ciro’s had a number of specialties ranging from a homemade bleu cheese salad dressing to the cold broccoli salad and the restaurant prided itself on making its dishes from scratch.

The original restaurant was quite small, Mullin explained in the book but over the years it expanded to provide a more elegant dining experience.

“As a kid I just remember how busy it was with lines going out the door with people waiting to get in,” she said,

As the reputation of the quality of the food spread, Ciro’s attracted show business celebrities who were appearing in the area.  Across the river on the Eastern States Exposition grounds the Storrowton Music Theater, an annual summer feature, brought in well-known actors and musical artists, many of who found their way to Ciro’s during their stay in the area.

Mullin recalls a repeat visitor was pianist Liberace who became good friends with her grandmother, who would go to Storrowton to see him perform.

She wrote, “He would come to the edge of the stage and asked her if she had gotten any new jewelry and so the could ‘compare’ the rings on their fingers. He actually would bend down so he could put his hand put to her to show her his latest piece! She loved the attention and the fact that he took the time to talk to her during his show!”

Mullin said that her grandparents would open the restaurant to performers such as Liberace after they performed and she said. We’d have a feast until 4 or 5 in the morning.”

Her father had a wall dedicated to photos of the performers who ate at the restaurant.

In the early 1990s the restaurant closed due to a variety of issues, Mullin said, including economic shifts in the city as well as changes in the neighborhood.

“It was a tough time,” she recalled.

With her grandparents no longer able to the run the restaurant, “It was too much for Dad and my aunt to handle.”

Although there is a new restaurant with the same name there is no relation to the former business and its owners, Mullin said. She said the reaction to the book has shown there are plenty of people who fondly remember the restaurant landmark.

Today Mullin enjoys cooking and has thought about offering cooking classes or even Italian food products.

Looking back she said if she had had the opportunity she might have taken over the restaurant and “turned it around.” She admitted though the restaurant work is “hard work, a 24/7 job that you can’t do it on your own.”

She is now considering assembling a second volume strictly of recipes featured at the South End eatery.

The book is available at through Amazon and locally at Giftology in Longmeadow. Mullin sells signed copies of the book herself and can be reached through her Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/lauren.s.mullin.