South Carolina’s Oldest Restaurant Started Feeding Homesick Soldiers During World War II, and the Same Family Still Runs It

The smell of garlic and slow-simmered tomato sauce filled that old South Carolina building the moment I stepped through the door, and the history under my feet was as rich as the meal itself.

I found the place on a quiet block where an old brick building sits like it has been waiting for you, and I did not expect a fire station from the 1800s to be the foundation of a family restaurant.

The dining room opened in August 1940, when a woman began cooking spaghetti and meatballs for homesick Italian American soldiers training nearby, and her family is still in the building, still using her recipes, now with the fifth generation stepping up to keep it going.

I sat at a table near the window and watched the room fill with customers who seemed to know exactly what they wanted, the kind of place where the regulars do not need to look at the menu.

Eighty-five years later, a plate of pasta can carry that much story, and I left full, happy, and a little amazed.

It tasted like a family story that just happened to come with a plate of pasta.

A Fire Station That Traded Hoses for Homemade Pasta

The building grabbed me before the food did. Long before anyone was twirling linguine here, horses and fire wagons lived behind these walls.

From 1863 to 1903 the structure served as the Palmetto Fire Engine Company, and it later became Columbia Fire Department, Engine No. 2, from 1903 until 1921. That is more than half a century of sirens and smoke before a single meatball hit a plate.

What makes the place special is that the family did not scrub the history away during restoration. The original stable doors are still part of the building, and once you know they are there, you start spotting little clues everywhere you look.

Brick walls, wood paneling, and low lighting give the dining room a snug, old-world feeling that newer restaurants spend fortunes trying to fake. Here it came honestly, one decade at a time.

If you enjoy architecture even a little, arrive a few minutes early and take a slow walk around the outside before you head in. The scale of the doorways alone tells you something big used to roll through them.

Dinner in a former fire station is the kind of detail that sticks with you long after the check is paid. It gives an ordinary weeknight meal a sense of occasion.

Mama Tronco and the Soldiers Who Missed Home Cooking

Every great restaurant has an origin story, and this one starts with a fruit store. Sadie Carnaggio met James Tronco, a medic from Philadelphia, in her father’s fruit shop in Columbia during World War I, and the two married in 1918.

They came back to Columbia in 1930 and opened their own fruit stores, including the Iodine Fruit Store on Main Street. Selling produce was the plan.

Cooking dinner for a city was not.

Then World War II arrived, and thousands of soldiers poured into nearby Fort Jackson. Many of them were Italian American kids far from their mothers’ kitchens, and Sadie, who everyone came to call Mama Tronco, started making spaghetti and meatballs for them.

Word spread fast, the way it always does when someone cooks with real care. Demand grew so much that the fruit business quietly turned into Columbia’s first Italian restaurant, opening officially in August 1940.

I love that the restaurant did not begin as a business idea. It began as kindness aimed at people who were lonely and hungry.

That spirit still shows up in the portions, which are generous enough to send you home with a container. Some things really do get passed down.

The Place That Taught Columbia What Pizza Was

Here is a fun bit of trivia to drop at your table: Mama Tronco is credited with introducing pizza to Columbia. Back then, locals had no idea what the round, cheesy thing was.

So she gave it away for free. People needed convincing, and free samples were the most persuasive argument available.

It worked, obviously. Pizza went from a curiosity to something the whole city eventually took for granted, and the homemade version here is still one of the most ordered items on the menu.

The crust is not trying to imitate a trendy wood-fired style from somewhere else. It tastes like a recipe that has been made the same way for generations, because it has been.

I ordered one to share and immediately understood why regulars treat it as a rule rather than an option. It is simple, balanced, and comforting in a way that does not need a gimmick.

The name of the restaurant changed several times over the decades, moving from Iodine Fruit Store to Iodine Grill, then Tony’s Spaghetti House, before finally becoming Villa Tronco. The pizza survived every rebrand.

If you only get one thing here on a first visit, this is the piece of Columbia history you can actually eat.

Five Generations, One Family, Zero Interruptions

Family-run gets used loosely these days. Not here.

Villa Tronco is widely recognized as South Carolina’s oldest continuously operating restaurant, and the same family has been behind it the entire time. Carmella and Joe Roche, Sadie’s granddaughter and her husband, are among the current owners.

Their sons, Tripp and Donovan Roche, represent the fifth generation and plan to keep the legacy running. Reading owner replies signed by Tripp on public comments made the whole thing feel less like a corporation and more like a household.

That continuity shows up in small ways. Recipes have not been modernized into something unrecognizable, and the hospitality feels personal rather than scripted.

The restaurant marked its 80th anniversary in August 2020 and celebrated 85 years in January 2025. Very few businesses of any kind make it that far, let alone restaurants, which are famously hard to keep afloat.

When an owner stops by a table to say hello, it changes the whole rhythm of a meal. You stop feeling like a customer and start feeling like a guest.

I think that is the real reason people keep coming back for birthdays, anniversaries, and graduation dinners. Traditions need a place to happen, and this one has been holding steady for eighty-five years.

Dim Lights, Brick Walls, and an Unhurried Kind of Evening

Some dining rooms shout. Villa Tronco murmurs.

The interior leans dark and vintage, with brick, wood paneling, and lighting soft enough that everyone at your table looks well rested. It is the kind of room built for lingering rather than rushing through a meal.

Couples clearly love it for date nights, and larger groups fit comfortably too, since the restaurant regularly handles parties of a dozen or more for work dinners and celebrations. There is even a table tennis room that guests occasionally get invited to visit.

Live music turns up on select evenings, and the choices are more interesting than the usual background playlist. Broadway and Opera nights give the space a theatrical warmth that suits the old architecture.

My advice is simple. Check the schedule before you book if music matters to you, because it changes the mood of the whole visit.

Reservations are smart, especially on busy nights and during University of South Carolina graduation weekends when downtown fills up fast. Even a Wednesday can get packed.

Seats at the bar area are a solid backup plan if the dining room is full. You still get the same food, the same history, and a decent view of a restaurant that has been quietly doing its thing since 1940.

Recipes Older Than Most of the Menu Around Town

Old recipes have a certain honesty to them. Nothing here is chasing a trend, and that is exactly the appeal.

Mama Tronco’s decades-old family recipes still anchor the menu, from the homemade lasagna to the pan-seared Chicken Villa Tronco that regulars order without glancing at the options. Chicken Marsala and Chicken Piccata show up constantly in conversation about this place.

Fried calamari arrives with a roasted red pepper sauce that is worth slowing down for. Eggplant Parmigiana and Seafood Pesto round out the classics, and the Italian egg rolls are a fun local twist people talk about often.

Portions run generous, a habit that likely dates back to feeding hungry soldiers. Sharing an appetizer is a genuinely good strategy here.

Save space for dessert, because Carmella’s Famous Cheesecake has earned its reputation and the amaretto bread pudding gets mentioned almost as much. Cannoli and tiramisu are strong closers too.

One more insider note: the house salad dressing is a signature item, and plenty of guests leave wanting the recipe.

Doors open at 5 PM Tuesday through Saturday, with the kitchen running until 9 PM, and the restaurant is closed Sunday and Monday. Plan around those hours and you will eat very well.

Address: 1213 Blanding St, Columbia, South Carolina