Adele Gallo, one of the first women to run a restaurant in Little Italy, overcame many who stood in her way
NEW YORK -- In the late 1800s, many Italians immigrated here and established the neighborhood now known as Little Italy. For decades, all the restaurants there were run by men, but that eventually changed.
This Women's History Month, CBS2's Lisa Rozner introduces us to some of the first women to go against the grain.
Adele Gallo warmly welcomes customers to her restaurant Casa Bella on Mulberry Street.
After learning the ropes at a Brooklyn pancake restaurant in the 80s, the granddaughter of Italian immigrants says a real estate attorney and his wife who owned Casa Bella asked her to manage it.
"They said, 'It'll be a rough job,' and I said I'll do it, and I had the confidence. I really did," Gallo said.
In 2001, Gallo officially became the owner.
"I faced the kitchen, which is the biggest challenge in a restaurant. They wouldn't take orders from me because I was a female," Gallo said.
Gallo said she fired and replaced those who wouldn't listen, including the chef.
"I put a lot of females in here too," said Gallo, who makes it a point to hire and mentor other women.
Some are now in managerial positions.
Also in the neighborhood, the daughter of the late Lunella Russo said Lunella faced similar challenges when she took over her brother's restaurant, Santa Luccia, in the 70s.
For business matters, she said people would ask to speak to Lunella Russo's husband.
"She would just kind of take the forefront and say, 'No, you talk to me. I'm doing everything,'" Rossana Russo said.
Rossana Russo now runs Lunella's, which her mother opened a month before September 11th. Her parents immigrated from Italy to New York City in the 1960s and died in 2019 and 2020.
Russo left her job as a school counselor to keep Lunella's open.
"I could not be prouder and I think that every ounce of strength that I have comes from her," Russo said.
Russo said she recently became the first female president of the Little Italy Merchants Association. She hopes to bring more arts and culture to the neighborhood.