CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- When something works for 95 years, why mess with success?

Brothers Al and Joe Leonoro have been making spaghetti sauce and meatballs the way their Italian father and uncles taught them for 40 years. The sauce and meatballs form the backbone of Leonoro's Spaghetti House menu. Servers' shirts read, "Get sauced at Leonoro's."

They get to the restaurant every morning at 7 a.m. to start the sauce, which simmers all day and is ready to serve by 5 p.m. "I'd like for it to sit a bit before we serve it, but we don't have time," Al said.

They keep the pasta menu simple, with spaghetti, rigatoni, linguine and ravioli and meatballs available in three portion sizes, priced between $9.50 and $12. The same sauce smothers lasagna, stuffed shells and manicotti, or customers may substitute marinara sauce. Their Uncle Joe developed the distinctive house dressing, a tomato-based oil and vinegar mix that is by far their most popular salad dressing.

The Leonoros' Uncle Joe and Uncle Frank opened the family business as a confectionery, which was similar to today's convenience store, on Broad Street in 1915. They sold staples like milk and bread and also ice cream and fountain drinks.

"Uncle Joe would cook sauce in the back room. People would come in and smell the pasta, and request some," Joe said. "They started serving pasta."

In 1932, the brothers concentrated on the restaurant business.

An enlarged photo in Leonoro's current location, 1507 Washington St., E., shows the brothers serving customers behind an ornate marble counter. The store sat on the former Broad Street until 1973, when it was demolished to make room for the Interstate 64 exit ramp.

"That was actually a good move for us. There wasn't much seating in the old place," Al said. "It was hard on Dad, though. He didn't like change."

Al and Joe's father, Umberto, was 25 years younger than his brothers, and frequently mistaken as a son to one of them. "People tell us they knew our grandfather, meaning our uncle," Joe said. "We don't bother to correct them. Dad was so much younger than his brothers."

Leonoro's history

Al and Joe's grandparents moved to the mines near Cabin Creek from Italy and brought siblings, including Joe and Frank, with them. Umberto was born here. Their father worked in the mines, until the unrest accompanying the mines unionization spooked his wife and they moved back to Italy, taking 18-month-old Umberto with them.

His older brothers Joe and Al stayed to run the confectionery. Umberto was 19 when Italy entered World War II, and his older brothers told him to come back to the U.S., where he was a citizen.

"He couldn't speak any English, but was quickly drafted in the Army. He spent five and a half years in the Army, speaking little English and made all kinds of friends," Al said. "That's the kind of guy he was. Very happy-go-lucky. He was well-loved."

After his stint in the Army, Umberto came home to Charleston and ran Leonoro's Spaghetti House with his brothers, until they died in the mid-1960s, their deaths just a year apart. Umberto's sons Al and Joe joined the family business in their teens, and haven't left yet.

"In 1968, I was 16 years old when I starting working for Dad," said Al, who's 58. "He worked 12 hours a day, six days a week. I looked at him and wondered how he was doing it. Now, 40 years later, I'm doing it, too."

Joe, 52, followed suit, helping out in the restaurant after school. Both Al and Joe attended Morris Harvey College, now the University of Charleston, and scheduled their classes around the restaurant hours.

"I felt responsible and didn't want to go out of town for college," Joe said. "The family and the restaurant have always been our first priorities."

When Al was 18 years old, his father took his wife and children to visit his dying mother in the family home in Sezzi, Italy, leaving Leonoro's in Al's care. They were gone for three months.

"He told me I could keep any of the money I made," Al said. "He said I just had to make sure the restaurant was still there when he got back."

The restaurant still stood when Al welcomed his father home.

Still simmering sauce

In a world where restaurants come and go almost before the paint on their signs dries, Leonoro's still serves a steady flow of customers its made-from-scratch sauce and meatballs from family recipes.

The recipes never change, and the brothers don't believe in shortcuts. They start their sauce with whole tomatoes and the mixture simmers all day long. Every day, they also make lasagna and 40 to 50 pounds of meatballs. They boil about 210 pounds of pasta a week.

"I believe you're better to do one thing well. Our food is always consistent. My dad used to say we had the best spaghetti in town.

"I think the secret to our success is the pride that our parents instilled in us. There's always been a Leonoro at the helm," Al said.

In addition to pasta and meatballs, the menu features three dinner entrees -- veal Parmesan, chicken cacciatore and Italian sausage. Extras include mushroom sauce and white clam sauce. Duchess Bakery supplies the Italian bread served with meals or as garlic toast.

Naysayers warned the brothers that the Olive Garden would put them out of business when the Italian restaurant came to town. Al didn't worry. "The chains can't do ethnic foods," he said.

He did worry when low-carbohydrate diets were the rage, but the customers still came. They added whole-wheat pasta, available by special request, for carb-conscious patrons.

They've survived recessions and tough times, partially because their overhead is low. They own the building, Al and Joe are the cooks and they keep the number of employees low, including one server who has worked for them for 31 years, and another for 23 years. Al's son Mike and Joe's daughter Alicia both joined the family business after earning college degrees.

Alicia worked briefly at the statehouse right after her graduation. Mike graduated with a degree in sports management, but plunged right into the sauce-making kitchen.

"It's always a good idea to have a college degree, but I knew I'd come back to the restaurant," he said.

 The brothers work hard and play hard, taking several family vacations together every year. They close the restaurant for two or three vacation weeks a year. Customers who have moved from Charleston call to check if the restaurant will be open when they return for visits.

It's that kind of place.

"It's been a good life. There are nights when all the tables are full and I know everyone at all the tables," Joe said. "I can't think of anything else I'd rather do."

Reach Julie Robinson at jul...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1230.