Domiano Albanese; Restaurateur Served Free Food on St. Joseph’s Day

Domiano (Dominick) Albanese, a well-known local restaurateur who for the last several years has served free food every St. Joseph’s Day at his Domiano’s Italian Ristorante on Robertson Boulevard in West Los Angeles, died Jan. 31 at his Los Angeles home.

He was 61 and had been battling heart and respiratory ailments.

Born in Italy and raised in Brooklyn, Albanese owned three restaurants in Los Angeles but the one on the Westside was the one he chose to celebrate the saint’s day each March 19 by offering plates of rigatoni, mostaccioli, ravioli and other pastas. “Just because I want to,” he once told a questioner, although St. Joseph’s Day is traditionally a feast day in Albanese’s native Sicily.

About 2,000 people were fed each year.

Survivors include his wife, Beatrice, two sons and three daughters.