Originally from Chicago, La Fontanella is celebrating its 26th year in Phoenix, this November. In the 70's "The Little Fountain" was the name of the original MOM + POP + DAUGHTER storefront cozy restaurant, awarded restaurant in Chicago on 24th & Oakley on the S.W. side of the city, a little neighborhood of famous Tuscan eateries since the late roaring 20's. La Fontanella still exists on Oakley.

La Fontanella has been rated the best both in Chicago and here in Phoenix, where it was started all alone by a young single female member of the original family, named Isabella. She opened the restaurant by herself in 1982 and met and married in 1987 her husband, Berto, who made gelato specialties for restaurants called Berto's Gelato, which he sold in 2002. Isabella and Berto make all the desserts for the restaurant themselves. Berto who is now semi-retired, helps Isabella host, when he's not fishing in Mexico on his boat.

Italian-born Isabella, Chef-Owner, offers a menu with variety from both ancestral regions, Tuscany & Sicily. Isabella says… "I personally love dishes that take me back to the special occasions and the traditions of my family. They have a very anchoring and enriching effect. When I returned to Italy to live in 1980, I dedicated the year to experiencing and collecting my family's old recipes, their favorites and mine. And still today when I speak to my Mother, 88, who lives in Montecatini Terme in Tuscany, our favorite conversation is about the great new recipe she or I tried or had.  She still gets excited about cooking and eating, healthfully and deliciously, just as she taught me to do and luckily I inherited her taste buds and her zeal."