In 1976, Cabotto’s became the first Italian restaurant in Kanata, with Vince Pucci leading the restaurant for many years and helping build its lasting reputation in the community. Today, his son Perry carries that legacy forward as Cabotto’s celebrates 50 years and looks ahead to its next chapter.
Over those five decades, Cabotto’s has moved from its original location in the Beaverbrook Mall to a historic stone house on Hazeldean Road, watching the surrounding community grow and welcoming generations of customers through its doors. For Perry, who spent much of his childhood around the restaurant before eventually becoming its second-generation owner, the anniversary brings a new appreciation for what his father built.
“My father, Vince, spent years building it,” says Perry. “It really makes you appreciate how much work, sacrifice and love went into getting here.”
For 5 decades, Vincent “Vince” Pucci, above, was the heart and soul of Cabotto’s. Alongside longtime colleague Chef Dominique Bevilacqua, who retired in the 1990s, Vince built its reputation, defined its traditions and established a legacy of Italian hospitality that continues through his son Perry today.
Cabotto’s was built around traditional Italian cooking and the food Vince knew well, much of it rooted in traditions that were already part of life in the Pucci family. Sunday dinners brought everyone around the table, recipes and cooking methods were passed between generations, and Perry learned to cook by spending time in the kitchen with his family.
The restaurant became a natural extension of that upbringing. Some of Perry’s earliest memories are of being at Cabotto’s and watching his father work.
“He was there every day,” he says. “I saw how personally he took the business, the food, the customers, the details, everything. It wasn’t just a job for him. The restaurant was part of our family.”
Perry says there was never a defining moment when he decided he would follow in his father’s footsteps. Instead, his role grew over time, as he began to recognize what his father had created and what it would mean to continue it.
Historic depictions of Cabotto’s by Warren J. Blackburn and T.E. Mathews, capturing the restaurant’s distinctive stone home on Hazeldean Road.
“Over time, I realized that my father had built something very special, and I felt a responsibility to protect it and build on the foundation he had created.”
One of the restaurant’s biggest changes came in 2003, when Cabotto’s left its original Kanata location after more than 25 years and moved to 5816 Hazeldean Road.
Its new home brought a history of its own. Built in 1868 as Kemp’s Tavern, the stone building originally served travellers passing through the area by horse before later becoming a farm and country estate. In the late 1970s, it returned to its hospitality roots as Café Luigi’s, followed by The Chequers and Kemp’s Steakhouse. Designated under the Ontario Heritage Act in 1985, the property was purchased by Vince Pucci in 2003 and became the new home of Cabotto’s, beginning another chapter in its more than 150-year history.
Vince also shared Cabotto’s early years with his first chef and business partner Dominique Bevilacqua, who played an important role in establishing the restaurant alongside him. Though he has since passed away, his contribution remains part of the story behind Cabotto’s and its 50-year history.
“We’re still very traditional and old-school in the way we approach Italian food,” says Perry. “Many of our recipes have been with us since the beginning, and we don’t believe in changing something simply because a new trend comes along.”
That consistency extends to the way Perry approaches the food itself, something he connects directly to the Italian upbringing that first brought him into the kitchen.
“Food is personal,” he says. “You take pride in what you serve someone. Every dish that leaves our kitchen represents our family and our restaurant, so we care deeply about it.”
The passing decades can also be seen in the customers who return to Cabotto’s. Perry now sees people who first visited as young couples coming back with their children and grandchildren, while the restaurant has hosted engagements, birthdays, anniversaries, graduations and other milestones along the way.
“We know their families and their stories, and they know ours,” he says. “There is something very special about realizing that the restaurant has become part of people’s memories and family traditions.”
After spending most of his life around Cabotto’s, Perry says his own understanding of the restaurant has changed as well.
“When you’re younger, I think you naturally focus on the day-to-day work of running a restaurant,” he says. “Today, I understand much more clearly that a restaurant is really about relationships.”
As Cabotto’s celebrates its 50th anniversary, Perry is also careful to share the milestone with the customers who have supported it throughout those years.
Perry Pucci grew up around Cabotto’s before taking the reins from his father, carrying the family restaurant into its second generation.
“A restaurant doesn’t make it to 50 years because of one person or even one family,” he says. “It happens because customers continue to walk through your doors, and because a community decides to make you part of its traditions.”
Looking ahead, Perry hopes future generations will have the opportunity to feel the same connection to Cabotto’s that he does today.
“If future generations can look back and feel the same pride and gratitude that I feel toward my father and what he built, I think that would be a wonderful legacy.”
