Patriarch of longtime Tucson Italian restaurant Caruso’s dies at 100 | Tucson Restaurant News

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Zagona was a weekly regular at the restaurant for years after leaving the business to his son Salvatore Zagona Jr. Motzkin joined them years later.

But the presence of the older Zagona was never far away. The guests enjoyed the menu, which he created dish by dish, which dates back to the 1950s when he took over the restaurant from his father, the founder of Caruso, Nicasio “Caruso” Zagona. And they saw it in his dining room and on that terrace that years ago he had made the center of North Fourth Avenue.

“Everything he has done to develop Caruso’s, not just in terms of the menu, but also in terms of the space it has in Tucson, the courtyard that he expanded from my grandfather’s smaller terrace said Zagona Jr., the third oldest of six children. “The restaurant is his legacy. That meant most to him and raising a family with remarkable people. “

Zagona Sr. was born on July 27, 1920 in Brooklyn, New York, and served in the Navy during World War II.

After the war, he followed his father to Tucson, where he attended the University of Arizona on the GI Bill and met his wife, Ingeborg Thordis, a then UA student who had also served in the Navy during the war. The couple married in 1948.

Zagona Sr. took over Caruso’s in the early 1950s and quit his job as a proofreader for the Arizona Daily Star to work full-time in the restaurant while completing his Masters and PhDs from the UA. He continued to run the restaurant after receiving a professorship at the UA. He taught psychology for 30 years.

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