Tony Pedone's Restaurant

 Many longtime Covington residents have fond memories of Pedone's Restaurant on Claiborne Hill. It was a gathering place, a meeting place, even a special event place. 

Over on Facebook several entries about Pedone's Restaurant on the Remember Covington The Way It Was webpage mention its food, its entertainment, and the people associated with it.

Some went on their first dates there, celebrated birthdays there, and wound down after work with a drink or two at the bar. Some folks said it had the best hamburgers and pizza they ever ate, with Kay Fallon remembering that it was the first place in Covington that served pizza. Several agreed that it was always the best place for Prom and special dates.

"The food was wonderful!" was a common Facebook comment. The spinach bread (with garlic butter), turtle soup, muffulettas, the oysters Rockefeller, veal parm, stuffed trout, the lobster, meatballs and spaghetti, and chicken parmesan were especially mentioned. "Mr. Pete's special" was a favorite. It was thin layers of fried veal and fried eggplant with cheese and Maranara served with angel hair pasta.

The music and singing was also an attraction. Judy-Lynne Feilden said, "I used to sing there at the piano bar with the other customers who loved to sing!" Kelly Arseneaux Cannon also said she was a singer at the piano bar at one time. Clara Belle played the piano Stephen J Stokes remembered that his parents would get around that piano and sing along.

 

Clara Belle Bowden plays piano at Tony Pedone's Italian Restaurant in Covington 

The ambience was also a major draw, even with the kids, who especially liked the artwork on the wall and the jukebox. Local artists would display their artwork on the walls.  Ann Gauthier commented that she hung her paintings in there "when I was a starving artist. Also loved their turtle soup."

Kenneth J Nolan recalls that they also had a meeting room and the Krewe of Olympia held its organizational meeting there back in 1965. 

 
Apparently Pedone's first opened up a small pizza place down on the Mandeville Highway near Louis Prima's place. It also served hero sandwiches . They operated out of a wooden building with picnic tables and red checkered tablecloths. Then they moved to Claiborne Hill near the railroad tracks.

Matthew Schlenker concluded, "If there were one restaurant in Covington I wish I could go to just one more time, Pedone's would be the place. Many wonderful meals there."

 

 

After Pedone's closed, the building it was located in became The Village Restaurant and then became the Firehouse Bar, which, as shown above, burned down. It is now the location of a snow ball stand.