At Buzzetta’s Italian Cafe, the most important ingredient may be continuity. The Chesterfield restaurant represents the latest chapter in a family story that has unfolded across the St. Louis dining landscape for more than four decades, yet Executive Chef Lia Buzzetta and her son, Tony, are less interested in nostalgia than in preserving what has always mattered: fresh ingredients, gracious hospitality and food prepared with disciplined attention to quality and execution.
The mother-and-son team opened Buzzetta’s in Chesterfield Valley in 2023, returning to an area where their family had long-standing relationships with diners. “We have known them for generations,” Lia says of their clientele. “We missed it, and we decided it was the right time.”
For longtime St. Louis diners, the Buzzetta name is familiar. The family’s restaurant history dates to 1974, when Benedetto’s—named for Lia’s husband and Tony’s father—opened in Des Peres before later moving to Frontenac. The family subsequently operated other Italian restaurants in the region, and Lia and Tony brought decades of experience with them to their newest venture. At Buzzetta’s, those traditions have been refined rather than replicated: familiar foundations are presented in a setting and menu that feel current, while imported ingredients and enduring family techniques remain central.
That culinary inheritance begins in Palermo, Sicily, where Lia grew up in a family in which cooking was simply part of life. Her mother, she recalls, was “an amazing cook,” and everyone in the family learned their way around a kitchen from an early age. Those memories continue to inform her cooking today, though she says she adapts them thoughtfully for a contemporary dining room.
The distinction, Lia explains, lies in simplicity. "Sicilian cooking does not depend upon excess; it depends upon excellent ingredients and the restraint with which they're prepared. Fresh herbs, garlic, olive oil, seafood, veal and pasta form the vocabulary of the cuisine, with comparatively little reliance on heavy cream sauces." It's a philosophy evident throughout Buzzetta’s menu, where San Marzano tomatoes, extra-virgin olive oil, seafood, risotto and carefully composed sauces recur without obscuring the ingredients themselves.
Freshness is not a marketing flourish here; it is a standard. “Fish we get fresh every day,” Lia says. “This is not something we can compromise on. We prepare everything fresh.”
Nightly specials may include filet steak, swordfish, sea bass or salmon, allowing the kitchen to feature ingredients at their freshest, rather than forcing them into a fixed formula.
Family appears on the menu in more literal ways, too. Rigatoni alla Nino, fresh salmon and mushrooms in a light tomato sauce with a touch of red pepper, is Tony’s favorite. Cavatappi alla Nonna, with eggplant, mascarpone, San Marzano tomato sauce, olive oil and basil, pays homage to Lia’s mother. Other recipes carry the imprint of dishes the family ate and prepared while Lia was growing up in Sicily. These aren't recipes retrieved ceremonially from the past; they're dishes that have remained part of the family’s table because, as Lia puts it, “everyone loved it.”
Ask mother and son what a first-time guest should order and their personalities emerge. Lia immediately points to the calamari: “best in St. Louis,” she declares, as well as Veal alla Lia. Tony chooses the Rigatoni alla Nino. The menu encourages exploration beyond those signatures, from Artichokes alla Lia and house-made meatballs to seafood risotto, chicken spiedini and Filetto Siciliano, a lightly breaded filet finished simply with olive oil, garlic and lemon.
The experience, however, is designed to extend beyond the plate. In a dining culture increasingly defined by speed and informality, the Buzzettas remain committed to the pleasures of an unhurried evening: attentive service, conversation and a room that feels genuinely welcoming. Lia hopes guests notice the warmth of the staff and the restaurant’s sense of ease: soft music, including Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, floral touches on the tables and an atmosphere intended to encourage diners to settle in rather than hurry through dinner.
The family’s longstanding approach to hospitality has produced relationships that transcend individual restaurant addresses. “They patronize us wherever we go,” Lia says of loyal customers. Over time, many have simply become friends.
That may be Buzzetta’s clearest point of distinction. In an era when restaurants frequently chase novelty, Lia and Tony offer something more difficult to manufacture: regional character, institutional knowledge, and relationships accumulated over generations. Their restaurant is polished without becoming impersonal, traditional without being static.
And what do they hope diners tell a friend after an evening at Buzzetta’s? Lia’s answer dispenses with culinary terminology altogether.
“You have to go,” she says. “It’s awesome.”
After more than 40 years of feeding St. Louis, perhaps no more elaborate invitation is necessary.
"Freshness is not a marketing flourish here; it is a standard." - Lia Buzzetta
"At Buzzetta's, recipes aren't simply retrieved ceremonially from the past; they're dishes that began at the family table in Sicily, and continue to be enjoyed today."