La Bella Pizza opened October 19th, 1955 by an Italian couple from New York, Tony and Kitty Raso. The name “La Bella” means “the beautiful” and when a patio garden was added, our name was complete.
In the beginning, Kitty would serve while Tony prepared the meals with their son little Joey running around with a broom. As business grew they hired a dishwasher, and to keep him busy, they introduced delivering pizzas to Chula Vista in 1957.
In 1959, a second son, Tony Jr., was born, also a dining room replaced the patio and the upstairs was made into banquet rooms.
On 1977, Tony known by all as “Papa” promoted a young man, Stan Dale, as the manager; together they enlarged and modernized the kitchen.
In 1992, all the dining rooms were remodeled plus a sports bar was added. The staff has now grown to fifty. Our history is filled with stories of couples holding their wedding reception at La Bella only to have the children grow and have their own reception here.
After forty-five years, Papa and Kitty still come in daily to oversee the quality of your experience, Papa no longer kneads the dough by hand and Kitty does not waitress but the meatball you have eaten is still spiced by Papa. You will still find Kitty giving to South Bay charities and sponsoring their meetings at La Bella’s.