SHEBOYGAN, Wisc. — Stefano Viglietti doesn’t wear the chef hat too often anymore, but he’ll never shy away from transforming fresh ingredients — like when I asked him to cook up a quick dish during our interview.
It was not long after that request that the kitchen was filled with garlic, basil, tomato, and fresh mozzarella aromas.
"People sometimes come in and say 'What are you really going to do someday?' And you know what you tell them?…'I'm doing it.'"
Viglietti owns four businesses in downtown Sheboygan. His reign started at Trattoria Stefano in 1994.
"We celebrated 30 years in June,” he gushed. “It's an amazing thing, and the customers come back and say, ‘You're still here?' They can't believe it."
Viglietti then opened Il Ritrovo just across the street in 2000 — a Neopolitan pizzeria. At the time, he said it was only the fifth pizzeria of its kind in the States.
Five years later, he opened the breakfast joint Field to Fork next door to Il Ritrovo.
His inspiration is Italy where his father’s side of the family comes from.
"We'd go to the Tuscan coast or go to the island of Elba and I think I fell in love with that early on,” Viglietti reflected.
He has taken staff members to Italy several times over the decades to inspire creativity in the kitchen and apply the culinary techniques to the Sheboygan restaurants.
“I do feel like I have a calling and that calling is to help people eat better, source locally, be more sustainable,” he said. “And in the end, it just tastes better."
All of those goals have come to fruition at Slo Food Market, Viglietti’s fourth and newest spot, just around the block from the other three.
The market — opened in 2022 — is a grocery store, sandwich shop, and cafe all in one.
"It's named after the Slow Food movement…a mindset of good food takes time," explained General Manager Anna Ninkovic.
The movement originated in Rome in 1989 to preserve food cultures and traditions, re-spark interest in the food itself, and encourage conversations about the way food interacts with the rest of the world and the environment.
Nikovic said like Viglietti’s other restaurants, Slo Food’s produce, meat, and bread are farm-to-table or made in-house.
"I mean it is a benefit for everyone, especially in our local economy. We're giving money to the people that live here,” she explained sitting adjacent to an indoor sign that reads “The farmers will save the world.”
Viglietti said he’s been approached several times over the years with business expansion opportunities, but he insists that there’s no place like home.
Watch: A Sheboygan restaurant powerhouse.
He also hinted at the reopening of a pub he used to own, The Duke of Devon.
“You never know with Sheboygan because we’ve built this amazing group of people who are still here. We started in a town that you wouldn’t expect it to be,” Viglietti said. “And I want them to have, hopefully, another 30 years of doing this.”
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