Newport Eatery’s Success Is All in the Family : Villa Nova at 20, Already a Tradition

Charlotte Dale was nervous when she first began helping her husband greet guests at his new Italian restaurant in Newport Beach. One night a guest snapped at her for not getting his table right away.

“Oh, he said he knew the Dales very well, and he would see that I was going to get fired,” she recalled.

That was 20 years ago, and Charlotte Dale did not get fired.

In fact, Dale, 62, is now principal owner of the mural-covered Villa Nova, which Allen Dale, her late husband, created after moving his original Hollywood-based restaurant to Newport Beach in 1967. Dale and her oldest son, Jim, supervise and manage the restaurant, which in July will mark its 20th anniversary in Orange County and its 54th year in business.

The restaurant’s atmosphere and menu have changed little since Allen Dale opened his first Villa Nova in 1933 after his movie career as an actor in the silents ended.

A native Italian, Dale, who had changed his name from Alfredo DiLisio, spoke broken English and could not make the transition when the talkies became popular.

So he concentrated on his love of cooking and opened a restaurant that soon became a popular hangout for movie stars and young couples.

“We still have the same pasta dishes, a lot of scampi and more seafood. And it’s still authentic Italian. The only difference now is the prices,” Charlotte Dale said.

While her husband ran the restaurant, Charlotte Dale took care of the couple’s six children. She visited the Villa Nova only for dinner with friends.

In 1967--the same year he suffered a stroke and began introducing his wife to the mysteries of the business side of a restaurant--Dale decided to move to West Coast Highway in Newport Beach after heavy traffic problems and crowds of youths on the Hollywood Strip reduced the number of patrons visiting the restaurant.

He orchestrated the construction of an Italian-style villa for his new place of business, modeling it after the architecture of his hometown of Abruzzi, Italy. Dale’s friend, the late artist Stefano Falk, completed the Italian facade by adorning the villa’s outside walls with colorful murals.

Testy Cooks and Waiters

When the doors opened, Charlotte Dale began her career as a restaurateur--and quickly learned how to deal with testy cooks and waiters, demanding customers and outrageous wholesale prices.

Allen Dale died in 1971, and Charlotte Dale, who is of Scottish heritage, decided that she did not want to sell the business that her husband had founded and that was helping her put six children through college.

She also did not want a stranger to run the family-owned business.

“My husband always said the only person who is going to take good care of your place is yourself.” So Charlotte Dale took full charge of the Villa Nova.