Bottle, Condiment
Object number2013.39.2
Distributor
Joseph Costanzo Jr.
Datec. 1990
OriginMcKees Rocks, PA
MediumItalian Dressing/Plastic/Paper
Credit LineGift of Joseph Costanzo, Jr.
DescriptionSealed plastic bottle of Italian dressing. Contents intact. Front label printed in pink, black, dark yellow, and white has restaurant, product, and awards information. Restaurant's's name on seal around bottle neck. Reverse side label has directions of use, ingredients, and distributor's information.Dimensions8.375 x 4.125 x 1.75 in. (21.3 x 10.5 x 4.4 cm)MarksFront label printed in pink, black, dark yellow, and white: "The / Primadonna / RESTAURANT / OUR / FAMOUS / Italian / DRESSING . Joseph Costanzo, Jr., Owner / Voted the Best Italian [both words underlined] Restaurant in Western / Pennsylvania by the Readers of Pittsburgh / Magazine, Pittsburgh City Paper and / Pittsburgh Post Gazette. / 16 Fl. Oz. (1 Pint) 473 ml".
Text on seal around bottle neck "The / Primadonna / RESTAURANT".
Reverse side label has directions of use, ingredients, and "Distributed by / Joseph Costanzo, Jr. / The Primadonna Restaurant / McKees Rocks, PA".
Embossed symbol and recycling symbol on base.
Historical NotesItalian dressing from The Primadonna Restaurant. Costanzo began bottling the restaurant's house salad dressing in the early 1990s, which he sold as "The Primadonna Restaurant Italian Salad Dressing" in grocery stores throughout Western Pennsylvania. Owner Joseph Costanzo, Jr., opened The Primadonna Restaurant, named after his wife Donna, in McKees Rocks in 1986 and ran it until 2003, when he sold the restaurant to John Welsh, former owner of Welsh's on the Rocks. Offering Italian cuisine from Abruzzo and Calabria, Costanzo stylized the peasant fare of his parents' native regions in Italy into up-scale cuisine served on a white linen tablecloth. He won multiple awards for his 83 seat restaurant, including The Pittsburgh Post Gazette's 1990 Restaurateur of the Year, the International Geneva Association's 1995 Restaurateur of the Year, the DiRoNA Award (Distinguished Restaurants of North America), and was named one of America's Top Ten Italian Restaurants in 2002 by the International Restaurant and Hospitality Rating Bureau. Locally, The Primadonna Restaurant was voted the best Italian restaurant in Western Pennsylvania by the readers of Pittsburgh Magazine, Pittsburgh City Paper, and The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Nationally, it was written up in the pages of Playboy Magazine, The New York Daily News, and Mid-Atlantic Country Magazine.
Related institution
The Primadonna Restaurant
Related institution
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
(founded 1927)
Related institution
Pittsburgh City Paper
Related person
Donna Costanzo
On View
Not on view
c. 1983
