Oct. 3—DIXON — Mama Cimino’s, a fixture in Dixon for more than twenty years, officially closed its doors on Monday. Just a day later, renovation work began on the new restaurant and bar, Lena’s Social Club, which is expected to open there in November.
Jim Gallentine owned and operated Mama Cimino’s at 104 Peoria Ave. for 23 years. He said he decided to sell the company to Heather and Greg Huffman because, at age 73, “it’s just time.”
Gallentine said Wednesday he is looking forward to spending time with his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
“I haven’t been able to do that because it’s a seven-day-a-week job in this industry,” Gallentine said.
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Previous owners Larissa McClain (left), Jim Gallentine and Melissa Gallentine sold Mama Cimino’s to Heather and Greg Huffman. (Alex T. Paschal)
“It’s just a little bit harder than it used to be, and just as we’re moving, I’m finding out that I can’t do the things I could do when I was 40 years old,” he said.
Over the years, Gallentine sometimes worked up to 12 hours, covering shifts for employees when they called off and always being able to lend a hand when things got busy.
“I’ve worked like that all my life, so it’s never bothered me, but I just can’t do what I did,” he said.
In what Gallentine’s wife, Melissa Gallentine, calls his famous words, “My mind writes checks that my body can’t pay,” he said.
But in 2001, Gallentine wrote a check for his body to pay.
He had been working at the Sterling steel mill for 35 years when it closed, prompting him to look for a new job. Then he met Nick Cimino, and the couple decided on the building across from Dixon High School at 116 N. Peoria Ave. to purchase where Sauk Valley’s Raynor Door Authority now stands. Together they opened Mama Cimino’s in November 2001.
“When I started, I couldn’t even spell pizza, let alone make one,” Gallentine said. “The traditions, the recipes and the integrity that I learned in this business, I learned from Mama Cimino and her sons.”
It all comes from a more than 50-year Cimino family tradition.
The woman behind Mama Cimino’s has built an empire, Gallentine said. After her husband died, she and her four sons took over operations of the family’s first location in Freeport. Today, there are about 20 Cimino restaurants in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. There is also one in Las Vegas and Boulder City, Nevada, as well as one in California. All restaurants are independently owned.
Gallentine and Cimino were the first to ever name one of the restaurants Mama Cimino’s. Before that, all restaurants were called Cimino’s Pizza or a variation thereof.
“It took a lot of responsibility to put Mom’s face on the board,” Gallentine said. “She reminded you every day, ‘That’s my face representing you.’”
Around 2004, Gallentine and Cimino opened another Mama Cimino’s in Clinton, Iowa. About a year later, Gallentine and Cimino separated their business partnership; Cimino retained ownership of the Clinton location and Gallentine remained at the Dixon location. Gallentine then moved the restaurant to the downtown location in 2008.
Over the next 16 years, Mama Cimino’s grew into a favorite of the Dixon community, offering catering, weekly buffets and space to host private events. Since Jim and Melissa Gallentine got married in 2013, “she’s been here by my side and helping me run this place every day since,” he said. “It grew to the size it needed both of us to grow.”
“I owe it all to my help,” Jim Gallentine said. “There is absolutely no way we could have gotten from where we started today without good, loyal employees.”
One of those employees is a pizza chef “who’s been with me for 22 years, and we’ve only been around for about 23 years,” he said.
In Dixon, Mama Cimino’s became more than just a restaurant. For Gallentine, “he learned the value and importance of community involvement,” he said.
The restaurant was involved with Discover Dixon and took part in the Scarecrow Festival, Christmas Walk, Petunia Festival, City Market and many more community events. One of the big events Mama Cimino’s participated in each year was the Reagan Run 5K. Each year, the restaurant donated about 70 pizzas to the runners after they finished the race.
“We are so fortunate in Dixon that the leaders are so proactive,” he said. One leader Gallentine singled out was Dixon City Council member Mary Oros.
“During the [COVID-19] During the pandemic, she was the only person visiting the business on an almost weekly basis,” Gallentine said. “She helped us with grants and helped us stay informed so we could do everything we could to stay in business.”
He also said how impressed he is with all the development that Dixon’s leaders have accomplished along the riverfront and downtown. That was beneficial for Mama Cimino’s because of all the community activities the restaurant was a part of.
“They happen here,” Gallentine said.
Mama Cimino’s has also made donations to many community organizations. First and foremost, “the youth and the local food bank,” Gallentine said. Most notably, Mama Cimino’s had a booster club at the high school and held an annual canned food drive at the restaurant.
Supporting the youth is something Gallentine values deeply, “because they are our future. They are everything,” he said.
Nearly all of his grandchildren and four of his seven children worked at Mama Cimino growing up.
“Today’s youth are good workers,” he said.
Many of his employees were students at Dixon High School. In September, the last month before Mama Cimino closed for good, ten of those students “had excellent status or an honor roll, they played sports and worked. They were polite. They had manners,” he said.
Another life lesson Gallentine said he learned while owning the restaurant is “buy local, support local.” He first heard that saying from Rick Curia, president of Ken Nelson Auto Plaza. With that philosophy, he would choose to shop at Kitzman’s Lumber or Ace Hardware over a larger chain store, even if someone told him he could get something cheaper there.
The idea was — and is — that small businesses should support each other, “and I think we’ve seen that happen,” he said.
Like Mama Cimino, the Huffmans hope Lena’s becomes more than just a place to eat, but a community space focused on service, Heather said.
The new restaurant and bar will offer a south-of-the-border menu, as well as pizza, pasta and desserts. The Huffmans plan to do extensive renovations to “restore as much historic integrity as we can,” Heather said in an interview with Shaw Local.
It is expected to open on November 2.
—The Telegraph/Sterling Gazette strives to keep readers informed of business happenings in the region. Much of our reporting depends on what we see and hear, but we also reach out to readers for tips on business topics. If you have a tip for Eyes on Enterprise, please email news@saukvalley.com.
