Mama Z’s Cafe in Tontitown is busy at noon on this Tues- day. I’m here to interview Larry Foley about his new documentary on the Italian families who founded the city. That documentary, “Cries from the Cotton Field,” and Foley were the subjects of Sunday’s column.

I must admit that I’m also here for some of my favorite food in the state. Mama Z was Edna Lou Morsani Zulpo, who founded this restaurant in 1988 along with her daughter Lisa. Mama Z, a Tontitown native, died in January 2019 at age 81. On opening day in 1988, there were lines out the door of people waiting for a seat in order to sample her pasta and homemade pie.

Following her death, daughter Julie Zulpo Bowling said: “Pasta was her main thing. It was all about the pasta. She liked making people happy. People were used to eating store-bought pasta. This was homemade. There’s a big difference, and she knew that.”

Mama Z was an active member of St. Joseph Catholic Church, which long was the anchor that held families together here. These days, it’s difficult to tell where Springdale ends and Tontitown begins as one drives west on U.S. 412. The population was just 460 as recently as the 1990 census. By the 2020 census, it had soared to 4,301. It’s now estimated to be 6,500 as subdivisions spring up seemingly overnight.

It’s safe to say that many of those new residents know nothing about the fascinating story of this place, named in honor of Henri de Tonti, the Italian who helped Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, explore the Mississippi River and later founded Arkansas Post in 1686. Foley’s documentary will tell one of the most interesting stories in Arkansas history.

“The Tontitown Italians began their lives in America as tenant farmers on the south Arkansas plantation of Sunnyside in Chicot County,” historian Susan Young writes for the Central Arkansas Library System’s Encyclopedia of Arkansas. “Groups from northern and central Italy arrived there in 1895 and 1897 and soon found themselves battling poor sanitation, disease, unfamiliar farming methods, language barriers and contract disputes.

“In early 1898, about 40 families chose to follow Father Pietro Bandini, the plantation’s resident priest, to the Arkansas Ozarks, where the climate, terrain and small-scale agriculture were more similar to northern and central Italy. They settled on a parcel of rocky land west of Springdale. Abandoned cabins and outbuildings provided shelter until homes could be built. Horses and plows were bought on credit. Land was cleared. Vegetable gardens, vineyards, apple and peach orchards, and fields of strawberries were planted.”

At the end of June 1898, a picnic was held to observe the Feast of St. Peter, Bandini’s patron saint. The annual picnic was moved to August in 1913 to coincide with the grape harvest. That harvest was the forerunner of the Tontitown Grape Festival.

Tontitown was long known for the festival and two restaurants, Mary Maestri’s (which closed in 2016) and Venesian Inn (which is still going strong). Lunch is so good at Mama Z’s that I return to Tontitown for supper on the other side of the highway at Venesian Inn. The restaurant was opened by Germano Gasparotto in 1947 and has been inducted into the Arkansas Food Hall of Fame.

Gasparotto later sold the restaurant to John and Mary Granata. They passed it on to their daughter, Alice Leatherman and her husband Paul.

According to a history of the restaurant printed on Venesian Inn menus: “Alice, the beloved prankster, served customers for many years with her fun-loving nature and commitment to fine Italian food, always made from scratch. The family tradition was then passed on to nephew Johnny Mhoon and his wife Linda in 1992. With dedication, hard work and a focus on high-quality food and service, Johnny and Linda continued to draw people from all over the area.

“The Venesian Inn’s food reflects the rich heritage of the Italians who settled Tontitown. The restaurant’s basic menu of spaghetti and fried chicken includes homemade rolls. Diners enjoy their meals at the same wooden tables installed by Gasparotto in 1947. The brick walls and hardwood room dividers are original. Some customers recall the days when a Venesian Inn No. 9 steak cost only $1.50.”

Earlier this year, 24/7 Tempo, a food and lifestyle publication, included Venesian Inn on its list of the 25 best old-school Italian restaurants in America.

In a recent interview with the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Fayetteville native Charlie Alison, now executive editor for university relations at the University of Arkansas, talked about his early memories of Tontitown: “My introduction to Tontitown was in the 1960s or 1970s, going to the Tontitown Grape Festival with my family, eating spaghetti and taking a spin through the midway.

“I vaguely understood that it was an Italian enclave but didn’t learn the background of how the Italian families wound up in Arkansas until much later. That probably happened when I was a reporter at The Springdale News. In addition to covering the Rodeo of the Ozarks at Springdale, one of the rites of passage for a new reporter at the paper was covering the Tontitown Grape Festival and trying to find a story that no one else had told yet.”

When Foley was filming in Northwest Arkansas, Alison portrayed Bandini.

“With Bandini, it didn’t feel like I really connected with him until we were filming out in a vineyard on the west side of Tontitown, and I understood what the grapes would mean to him and his followers,” Alison said.