Antelao Restaurant - Delaware Water Gap, PA

84 Main Street
Delaware Water Gap, PA
570-426-7226

April 15-21, 2002
By AMY LEAP
Business Journal Correspondent

Their mutual love of preparing food and serving people has taken Michael and Elvi Delotto from owning and running a bakery to their newest labor of love, Antelao Restaurant in Delaware Water Gap. "Since we were able to build this place from the ground up, we are responsible for the entire concept," Michael says. "We didn't want an existing restaurant and we didn't want anything that had a reputation for what was already there."
After 10 years of getting up in the wee hours of the morning to bake the pastries and breads that their bakery, Sassafras Ovens in Gilbert, was so well known for, the Delottos decided it was time to look for another outlet to enjoy their love of food.
Originally the Delottos started looking in the Cape May, N.J., area for a place to open a restaurant.
"Then we decided that we would rather stay in the Pocono area where people knew us and we already had a good reputation," Michael says.
That began a search of several months to find the perfect place where the Delottos could provide not just a meal for people, but a true dining experience.
"As soon as we walked into this building, I knew this place would work for us, it was perfect," Elvi says.
It may have been the perfect place for their restaurant but it took six months of hard work to get the place ready to open. The couple estimates that they have spent hundreds of hours on the renovations. "Most of the work, except for hooking up
the gas line, was done by the two of us," Michael says.
When Elvi talks about the hours spent designing Antelao, to create an atmosphere of intimacy where guests could enjoy a relaxing interlude, the passion is evident on her face.
No table is near the kitchen, no table is near the bathrooms or the waitresses station.
"We wanted a restaurant where there were no bad tables," Elvi says.
As you walk into the dining room, one look tells you that Elvi's efforts have been hugely successful. From the rich patina of the restored wood floors, the pale yellow walls awash from the sunlight that steams through front windows to the handcrafted tables and chairs, you know this place has something special to offer.
"I built the tables and chairs in my wood shop the week before we opened," Michael says. "They were actually made for the room because what we wanted was for people to sit down at a table and feel like they were at home."
Even the name Antelao Restaurant is special to the Delottos. Antelao is a mountain in the Dolomite Mountain Range in Italy and that's where Michael's grandparents came from, Elvi says.
"It is the biggest mountain up there," Michael says. "It is known as the king of the Dolomites."
Guests who dine at Antelao during the summer months guests are surrounded by colorful flower, herb and vegetable gardens as they walk up the path to the iron gate that leads to the front porch.
Quick to give his wife credit for her green thumb, Michael says, "Elvi is incredible with the gardening. Most of the herbs and vegetables we serve are grown by her."
He reports that in their basement Elvi has 400 seedlings just waiting to be planted as soon as the warmer weather arrives. Laughing, Elvi says, "One condition of the sale of our other house was that we could truck out the soil from there to use in my flower and vegetable beds here."
The Delottos have put a great deal of effort into keeping their restaurant good for the environment. Besides raising their own produce, they also have a greenhouse and a composting machine behind their restaurant. Every bit of food that is purchased by the guests or processed at the restaurant is either served or composted.
"Because our concept and the way we do business is important to us, it is something that we want other people to know," Michael says.
Purchasing a trailer from the local Home Depot store, the Delottos also store all the bottles, cans and containers used at the restaurant so that they can be recycled.
"Every two weeks we hook up the trailer and take it to the East Stroudsburg recycling center to be emptied," Michael says. The dining room, which looks out on Main Street in the village of Delaware Water Gap, has only six tables and seats a maximum of 24 people at one time.
"Our most requested tables are the two in front of the big windows. You sort of get a San Francisco feel when you look out the window," Michael says.
When reservations are made, the table is automatically booked for two hours so that the guests have ample time to enjoy the meal.
Every guest is given Elvi's full attention so that their dining experience can be perfect and it isn't long before Elvi has her guests relaxed and smiling.
"We are also a non-cell phone restaurant," Michael says. 'We do realize that there are people such as doctors who may
have to answer a phone call but we request that all other personal calls be done after leaving the restaurant. I think most people have had enough of being forced to listen to other peoples conversations," he says.
Antelao changes its menu offering three times a year so that dishes can include vegetables that are in season.
They also serve a limited menu so that attention can be given to serving quality. Serving dinner Thursday through Sunday, they are currently featuring the winter menu that includes such entrees as Osso Buco, Squash Canneloni with Sage Butter, Salmon Roulade and several other delicious dishes. All the entrees include a tossed green salad with fresh vegetables. Starting around the second week in April the menu will change over to dishes centered on spring offerings.