Sabby and Eugenia Russo

Hard as it may be to imagine the sprawling San Fernando Valley as a small town, it felt that way inside Sabatino’s Italian Bakery and Restaurant. People came from all over the Valley to eat at the modest restaurant tucked away on a North Hollywood side street. They came as much for owner Sabato “Sabby” Russo’s Old World charm as for his home-cooked pasta and cookies. And on the day after Thanksgiving, they came to mourn his death.

The man who “filled the room with happiness,” according to one longtime customer, was stabbed and beaten to death Nov. 22 along with his wife, Eugenia, in their home a few blocks from the restaurant. Both were 73 years old.

A 23-year-old Sylmar man who had been hired to install a floor in their house has been charged in the slayings. Robbery is believed to be the motive.

Sabby and Eugenia Russo were known for their generosity, whether to their wide circle of acquaintances--many of them regular diners who became friends--or to the neighborhood homeless. Those who knew them say they would have given the young man anything he needed.

Instead, what was taken from the Russo family--from the community--can never be replaced.

A makeshift altar materialized on the sidewalk in front of Sabatino’s restaurant in the days following the Russos’ deaths. Neighbors and employees, barbers and entertainment executives, a football coach and a cardiologist came with candles and flowers and, most of all, memories.

For a short time, their grief drew them close. And then they went back to a city that seemed more sprawling than ever before.