COLUMBIA, S.C. — Carmella Tronco Martin, 100, has passed away. Martin was the matriarch of Villa Tronco Italian Ristorante, Columbia’s oldest continuously running restaurant at 1213 Blanding St.
According to the restaurant’s website, what would become Villa Tronco began with Martin’s mother, Sadie, preparing spaghetti and meatballs for soldiers of Northern Italian descent based at Fort Jackson during World War II. The demand for Sadie’s homecooked meals became so great that she opened the first Italian restaurant in Columbia in August 1940, introducing local residents to an Italian classic… pizza.
Carmella and her husband Henry Martin worked alongside “Mama Sadie” in Villa Tronco for 41 years, until Sadie passed away in 1988. The Martins ran the restaurant, the menu filled with Sadie’s recipes, until they retired and passed the business to daughter and son-in-law, Carmella and Joe Roche in 1972…