Romance is in the air at Nello’s Place in Redding.
Redding’s renowned Italian dining spot is gearing up for another busy Valentine’s Day this Saturday, Feb. 14.
Jim Dad, who owns Nello’s with his wife, Rosa, had to stop taking reservations for the special night when the booking list swelled to 300.
Reservations filled fast, within about three weeks. “That’s probably the quickest we’ve ever sold,” Dad said.
“You open those doors up and (customers) just start coming in here,” the long-time restaurateur said; “We’ll have a 35-table rotation to do 300 people.”
Couples who couldn’t snag a Saturday slot were being squeezed in for Friday, which also was selling out.
Nello’s popularity on Cupid’s day shouldn’t be a surprise considering it once again was voted the top romantic restaurant in the latest Best of North State Community’s Choice Awards. The Bechelli Lane location also took three other best-of honors for premier dining experience, fine dining and best Italian food in 2025.
“I always tell them, thank you very much,” Dad said.
Setting the mood at Nello’s Place
Don’t be surprised if there’s already a line of customers when the doors open at 5 p.m., especially on the weekends. The parking lot fills up fast.
Dad recommends reservations all year long, especially for diners traveling from out of town and on high-demand occasions.
“So it goes New Year’s Eve, then Valentine’s and then Mother’s Day (in order of popularity),” Dad said. “Believe it or not, our busiest month is always in December for Christmas parties.”
With a reputation for haute cuisine, dinnertime patrons also turn to Nello’s to celebrate anniversaries and birthdays or to just have a special night out.
Nello’s is the kind of classy place where the waiters wear bow ties, black vests and white shirts as they prepare dishes such as Steak Diane and bananas flambe with a fiery flourish.
Dimly-lit dining rooms, tableside candles, cloth napkins and linen tablecloths are part of the elegant experience.
Background music creates an intimate atmosphere with Frank Sinatra singing “New York, New York” or perhaps Dean Martin crooning “That’s Amore.” “We still play the old music, believe it or not,” Dad said.
Servers elevate the experience with a floral touch. “We give roses to the ladies at the end of the dinner,” Dad said.
A Redding restaurant legacy
Nello’s got its start in 1982 after founder Nello Miele and his wife, Tomiko, moved to Redding to supposedly retire. By that time in his life, Miele had a storied history of running famous restaurants.
In an online bio, Miele said he first got involved in the food industry in New York and Palm Beach, Florida, before opening his first restaurant in 1963 called Talk of the Town, where he “catered to the stars.”
“(Nello) used to tell me people like Danny Thomas, Frank Sinatra and those people in the ’60s would come to his restaurant,” Dad said.
From there, Miele went to San Francisco where he opened the well-known D’oro Restaurant.
Once in Redding, though, Miele said he was disappointed because he couldn’t find “a good local Italian restaurant.”
So, Miele wrote that he and his wife, along with son Michael and daughters Rosa and Gina, opened Nello’s as a small, gourmet Italian restaurant.
Dad, wife carry on tradition
Dad starting working at Nello’s in August 1982 a short time after Miele opened the place in May that year.
Dad, who later would become Miele’s son-in-law, came from a job in 1981 shoveling snow off houseboats at Lake Shasta to working in room service at the old Shasta Inn.
His first job at Nello’s was cleaning dishes. Dad started there when he was 21. In March, he’ll turn 67.
“(Miele) needed more help so I started as a dishwasher and then a bussing job was available,” he said.
Dad said he cleared tables for three years before moving up to server for 18 years. He then began a 10-year stint as host when Miele passed away in 1998 at the age of 63.
Dad said he and Rosa started dating in the mid-’90s and after several years, he approached her father about matrimony. “I said, ‘Hey Nello, we’re thinking about getting married.’ He says, ‘That’s a great idea.’”
Dad said Miele’s wife, Tomiko, needed help at the time so she sold him half the business. Fourteen months after Miele died, his 61-year-old wife passed away, leaving Dad and Rosa to manage the business.
Dad says Rosa is a dental hygienist who also takes care of the restaurant’s bills.
The Dads bought the building in 2007, a month before his lease expired. “I’m down to probably the last two years of the building payments in here. For 20 years, I’ve made the payments,” he said.
English as second language
Dad’s background makes you wonder how he came to run an Italian restaurant.
His father was born in Pakistan and fought during World War II for the British Navy when he was 16. Dad’s mother was born in Idaho with Dutch and Irish heritage.
Dad said he always felt a kinship with his Italian father-in-law because he said both Miele and his father abandoned ship to live in America. Miele, a native of Naples, Italy, served in the Italian Navy. “It’s ironic how Nello jumped off the ship when he was 16 in New York. My dad jumped off the ship in Stockton when he was 24 years old,” Dad said.
Another similarity is that Dad’s father-in-law and mother-in-law got married in Reno and his mom and dad married there too.
Dad was born in the U.S. and lived here until his parents split up when he was 3. Dad’s father sent him to Pakistan to be raised by his mother and Dad didn’t return to America until he was 13. “To be honest, I did not learn to speak English until I was like in high school,” he said.
Dad lived in Yuba City where he helped his father at his orchards before he died at 57. “I moved up here with my girlfriend and I never looked back,” he said.
Dad attended Shasta College where he said he met another mentor, tennis coach Jim Middleton. “He’s probably one of my biggest influences in my life as a person because I still had to learn to read and write. And I had to take those classes when I moved up here,” Dad said. “And to this day, (Middleton) is 80 years old and he still helps people out.”
After playing soccer, basketball and running cross-country in high school, he found he excelled at tennis. He continued playing at the college, and was so good that in 1990 Dad was inducted into the Shasta College Athletic Hall of Fame for playing tennis from 1980-’81.
Wide-ranging menu
Dad has spent the past 12 years helping in the kitchen before his main cooks arrive. He’ll start in the morning preparing the meat and tomato sauces and soup. “It’s all done by me in the morning,” Dad said.
He said it took him five years to get a kitchen crew back together following the pandemic. Now he runs a 22-person staff.
Diners can choose from an extensive list of 70 menu items, including some cooked flambe style by servers lighting dishes and desserts on fire with high-proof alcohol for a dramatic show.
“We’re probably the only place that’s grandfathered in for tableside cooking in here — Steak Diane, bananas Foster, cherries jubilee, Caesar salad, crepes Suzette,” Dad said. “We have portable propane burners on the carts. … When we cook a Steak Diane, we keep (the flames) away so we don’t burn someone. You flame it with brandy and the fire just does toward the ceiling and people go, ‘Wow.’”
Adding to the flavor or grilled meats is the kitchen’s unique mesquite broiler.
Dad says Miele collected over 70 recipes from his restaurant days that are part of the Nello’s tradition.
“I know that they were not totally his recipes because he worked in so many restaurants all his life, but it’s like an infusion of recipes that he collected,” Dad said. “I made it my job to learn what Nello had in here so this business can go on.”
Dad was hard-pressed to narrow down his customers’ favorite dishes but he described the ones he likes most. “I like the scampi della casa — prawn sauce with garlic in it. The veal marsala and the chicken marsala,” he said.
Being an Italian restaurant, Dad says they naturally sell more wine than cocktails or beer. “There’s a whole wall of wine that, watch, by the time Valentine’s hits, it’ll probably be 50 percent gone and I filled it up last week,” he said.
Some desserts are more popular than others. “We have cannolis, we have tiramisu, chocolate cake, cheesecake. But hands-down it’s always tiramisu or cannoli or the flambeed desserts on the tableside that go,” he said.
Family tradition
The family-run restaurant extends to a second generation as Rosa’s daughter, Sophia Hageman, is a dining-room fixture.
“When I got married, (Sophia) was 2-and-a-half years old. Now she’s 31,” Dad said. “So Nello’s granddaughter is my main waitress, believe it or not, my head waitress. (Sophia) helps with daytime errands. She’s indispensable.”
A Valentine’s Day dilemma
Dad credits two keys to Nello’s success.
“Without your employees in here, you have no business. And without the loyal customer, you have nothing,” he said.
Dad, being a huge Super Bowl fan, faces a dilemma next year.
“Super Bowl is usually my hobby. So next year, Valentine’s Day falls on Super Bowl Sunday. I can’t even imagine trying to get a crew in here on Super Bowl Sunday,” he said. “It’s kind of freaking me out.”
At least he’ll have a year to figure it out.
If you go: Nello’s Place
This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: That’s Amore. Nello’s Place to host hundreds of Valentine’s Day diners
Reporting by Mike Chapman, Special to the Record Searchlight / Redding Record Searchlight
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
