Columbia’s oldest restaurant, Villa Tronco, celebrates 75 years in the family

Fifty years ago, John Parrish walked into Villa Tronco on a first date with the woman he would marry.

He and Karen, a cheerleader at Lexington High School, had stopped by Krispy Kreme after a football game in September 1965, picked up a dozen doughnuts, and come to Villa Tronco to order two Coca-Colas and eat their doughnuts.

When the Parrishes returned to Villa Tronco for their 46th wedding anniversary, there was a box of doughnuts and two Coca-Colas waiting on the table for them.

Villa Tronco treats them like family.

“How many restaurants can make you feel that special?” Parrish said. “It’s nice to have a family outside of the family.”

And for the oldest restaurant in Columbia – and one of the oldest in South Carolina – family is largely what has kept Villa Tronco a staple in the Columbia community for 75 years.

“Being here for 75 years, run by the same family in the same building, I don’t think you see that too much,” said Carmella Roche, the third-generation owner of the restaurant, which is celebrating its milestone anniversary this week.

Roche’s grandmother, Sadie Tronco, introduced Italian cuisine to Columbia when she opened what would later become Villa Tronco on Blanding Street downtown in August 1940.

It started out as a fruit store and sandwich stop, having moved from the 1900 block of Main Street when the family’s original fruit store burned down.

The business took off once the war began and Columbia’s population swelled with Fort Jackson soldiers, many of whom came into town from the north on Greyhound buses, which dropped off conveniently close to the Troncos’ fruit store.

Tronco, the daughter of Sicilian immigrants, had the Italian-cooking background that many soldiers were homesick for. They came to her for pizza and spaghetti and meatballs, and the restaurant evolved into the Italian hub that it remains today, in the same location, three-quarters of a century later.

The restaurant “means everything” to Carmella Martin, the Troncos’ daughter who took over the restaurant’s ownership before passing it on to her own daughter.

“It’s just natural, my life.”

Plenty has changed in seven-plus decades, as ownership has passed from Tronco to her daughter and son-in-law, Carmella and Henry Martin, to their daughter and son-in-law, Carmella and Joe Roche.

Technology, from the introduction of computers to charge cards, has changed the way the restaurant operates. And social media is changing the way it communicates with customers – gone are the days of paying big bucks to advertise in the local phone book, Roche said.

Celebrities have been drawn to Villa Tronco over the years, from Mickey Rooney and Andy Williams in the restaurant’s earlier days to “Marky Mark” Wahlberg and, of more recent local fame, USC stars Marcus Lattimore and Aleighsha Welch.

In step with the revitalization of Main Street, the Roches have upped the entertainment factor at Villa Tronco in recent years and months by introducing regular opera, jazz and Broadway-music performances that draw waiting-list crowds.

But in a lot of ways, time hasn’t changed Villa Tronco so much.

It’s still in the same historic Blanding Street building. Chefs still use Sadie Tronco’s original recipes, such as thin-crust pizza and best-selling Chicken Villa Tronco. And the restaurant relishes its “old world” Italian atmosphere and family roots.

It all keeps John and Karen Parrish coming back regularly – at least once every week or two, he said.

“The food is excellent, but we just kind of enjoy the people,” Parrish said. “If you go there a couple times, they know who you are. And if you walk in the door that third or fourth time, they make you feel special.”

The Roches have brought up two more generations of the Tronco family in the restaurant. Their daughter, Carmelina Nieto, helps manage the restaurant and makes desserts. Their son, Bonner Roche, advises the restaurant on wine selections. And the Roches’ grandchildren, Tripp, Donovan and Jorja Roche, eagerly take on roles of greeting and seating guests and busing tables.

“I’m proud to be the fifth generation, and I just like to help out the family,” said 10-year-old Tripp, who said he hopes to follow in the exact footsteps of his great-grandfather Henry Martin, a University of South Carolina basketball star and Villa Tronco owner.

And why wouldn’t he?

Those Tronco genes run strong in his family.

“This is not blood in my veins,” said Carmella Martin, daughter of Sadie Tronco. “It’s sauce.”

This story was originally published August 11, 2015 at 4:31 PM with the headline "Columbia’s oldest restaurant, Villa Tronco, celebrates 75 years in the family."