San Pedro Sports Hangout Serves Its Last Linguine : 60-Year Clock Runs Out for Trani’s Team

Tommy Lasorda, manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers and a man who knows a thing or two about food, once said they served the best linguine and clam sauce around. Basketball great Wilt Chamberlain dropped by on occasion. So did Sylvester Stallone, back when he was still skinny and fresh-faced. So did the entire UCLA football team.

Not anymore. Trani’s Majestic Restaurant--a downtown San Pedro fixture that is so chock-full of sports memorabilia that it looks more like a museum than an eatery--dished out its last bowl of spaghetti and meatballs Wednesday night as several hundred loyal patrons said farewell.

After more than 60 years, the Trani brothers--Lou, Jim, Jack, Phil and John--have decided to sell the institution that their father founded as a pool hall, cigar stand and sandwich shop in 1925.

The deal is expected to become final today, leaving the Tranis with the unenviable task of packing up thousands of signed photographs, footballs, helmets, jerseys and framed newspaper articles, most of which belong to Lou, the senior brother, bartender and chief memorabilia collector of the clan. “I’m gonna start a sports library,” the eldest Trani declared. “I have enough stuff.”

Meanwhile, throughout the City of Angels, sports fans--both famous and unknown--are mourning.

“I’m devastated,” said Tom Marsee, a former baseball coach at Wilmington’s Banning High School who ate what he called “the last supper” at Trani’s Tuesday night. “This is a part of my life.”

Said Lasorda, who was host of $20-a-plate “Linguine and Baseball” luncheons at Trani’s to raise money for retired ballplayers: “It was a tremendous restaurant. . . . They did much for charity and the food was outstanding.”

Added Jerry Long, assistant director of athletics at UCLA: “The Trani boys are very generous, giving, fun-loving people, and they have a great affection for athletes. . . . For them to break up, it’s going to be a real void in San Pedro.”

But the Trani boys are no longer boys. And therein lies the reason for their unpopular decision to close up shop.

“We were getting up in age, you know,” explained Lou Trani, 67. He added that there was little talk of having younger family members carry on: “The secret to our success was the brothers being together.”

The buyers of Trani’s Majestic, a group of San Pedro-based investors who go by the name Blue Fin Properties, are paying about $4.5 million for an entire block of downtown San Pedro that includes the restaurant, a chocolate shop and office space, according to Jack Trani.

Although the new owners could not be reached, they have told the brothers that they may remodel the restaurant and reopen it in several months, possibly under the Trani name, which is permitted under the terms of the sale.

Not Really the Same

But regulars say that even by the same name, Trani’s will never be the same. Gone will be Lou, Jim, Jack, Phil and John. Gone will be the sports memorabilia, including Lou Trani’s prized possession: the jersey that former Los Angeles Rams lineman Merlin Olsen wore the day he retired.

And gone will be the bronze bust of the man who started it all: family patriarch Filippo Trani, who died in 1978, shortly before the Tranis opened at its current location at 6th and Beacon streets. (The old restaurant on nearby 7th Street was razed as part of an urban renewal project.)

That bust, which stands in the restaurant entryway--the first thing a visitor sees--may be the most telling decoration of all. Because when you strip away the fans, Tommy Lasorda, Wilt Chamberlain and the rest, Trani’s Majestic Restaurant is, simply stated, a family business.

“Because of my father we stuck together for 50 years,” said Filippo’s youngest son, 44-year-old Phil Trani, as the Wednesday lunch crowd poured in. “You know, this morning I walked in the door for the last time and it was really, really weird. It kind of weakened me a little bit. I’ve been doing this ever since I was 13 years old. I’m 44 now, and I’m not going to be doing it tomorrow.”