Introduction to the Fontano Family Business
LITTLE ITALY — For Aniello Fontano, all has come full circle. After watching his grandpa, Aniello “Red” Fontano, serve Italian subs to generations of University of Illinois Chicago students in Chicago’s Little Italy, the younger Fontano — who broke away from the family’s famous sandwich shop — is back in the neighborhood to present his new play about family, love, loyalty and community.
The Inspiration Behind the Play
“This place raised me,” Aniello Fontano said last week, looking around Fontano Subs, 1058 W. Polk St., where he’d returned to talk about his play. “I used to nap under the counter, and after school I watched Grandpa, Dad and Uncle Jimmy sit in the back and cut down pork for meatballs.” Most family members have been involved in the business that bears the Fontano name since Vincenzo and Maria Fontano founded it in 1932 across the street from its current location.
History of Fontano Subs
First, it was a butcher and grocery store. In the ‘60s, to meet changing demands of the neighborhood, the couple’s son, Aniello “Red” Fontano, started serving Italian submarine sandwiches to construction workers building the UIC campus and later, UIC students and staff. At its peak in the ’80s, the Chicago sub shop had 18 locations.
Aniello Fontano’s play, “Summertime, An Interlude,” is inspired by his family’s Fontano Subs shop and Chicago’s Little Italy neighborhood where he grew up. Credit: Joanna Marszalek/Block Club Chicago
The Play: Summertime, An Interlude
Aniello Fontano, known as Neil and one of “Red” Fontano’s eight grandchildren, wanted to pursue theater and film rather than work in the shop. After graduating from UIC’s theater school — and with the blessing of his father, current Fontano Subs co-owner Neil Fontano — Fontano went to the University in New Mexico to get his master’s degree in playwriting. He later moved to Los Angeles, where he currently lives, but the old neighborhood and the famous deli at Polk and Carpenter stuck with him. And that is where “Summertime, An Interlude” takes place: on a back porch of a Chicago three-flat, above the store.
Plot and Themes
In the play, four friends who live in the building find out that Red, a beloved community leader, was shot in a robbery gone wrong. The group must come to grips with the possibility that Red may die. Across the street, two friends are hosting a live podcast and talking about the shooting as they realize the impact Red had on them and the entire neighborhood. Though “Summertime” touches on the issue of violence, the play is funny, Fontano said. It makes references to his real-life friends and deli workers at Fontano’s Subs and pokes fun at the Italian community in which he grew up.
Production and Reception
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