Richard Catelli, former owner of Catelli’s restaurant in Geyserville, dies at 83

Richard Catelli loved Geyserville, of course he did.

But truth be known, the retired restaurateur and nearly lifelong resident of the north Sonoma County hamlet wouldn’t have minded being a somewhat smaller fish in a somewhat bigger pond.

“He liked the city life,” said his daughter, Domenica Catelli, the celebrity chef and co-owner of Geyserville’s landmark Catelli’s restaurant.

She said that as a young man her father left Sonoma County and was enjoying his life and work in Chicago when his mother asked him to come back and help with the family eatery.

He did. And when the time came, in the early 1960s, for him to take over, Richard Catelli became operator of the restaurant that during his tenure at the helm was known as Catelli’s the Rex.

He remodeled the place to give it a big-town feel, and years later approved of the upgrades introduced by his daughter and his son, Nicholas Catelli.

In retirement, Richard Catelli traveled a good deal. “He was kind of a gypsy,” his daughter the chef said.

But he always came home to the place where his parents opened their restaurant shortly before his birth in 1936.

Catelli had dealt with cancer for most of a year when he died Dec. 18. He was 83.

“He did quite a bit, in his own way, for Geyserville,” said another lifelong pillar of the town, retailer Harry Bosworth.

“He didn’t want to be part of such a small town, but he reluctantly was,” Bosworth said. “Richard certainly did his share.”

Catelli was born Nov. 16, 1936, in Healdsburg. Months before, his parents, Virginia Catelli, who was born in Healdsburg, and Santi Catelli, an Italian immigrant, opened a restaurant in the heart of little Geyserville.

Domenica Catelli said her grandparents wanted to call it Catelli’s, but they couldn’t afford to have a custom sign painted.

The sign painter offered them for free a leftover sign bearing the name, “The Rex,” Latin for the king. As the story goes, that sign had been painted for an evidently regal barber shop.

So The Rex is what the Catellis called their Italian restaurant. They and their sons, Nello and Richard, lived upstairs.

As a young man, Richard Catelli served with the Marine Corps and became a sales representative for Italian Swiss Colony, the wine company based in Asti, the even smaller town just north of Geyserville.

The sales work allowed Catelli to quit rural Sonoma County and immerse himself in the urban attractions of Chicago.

He was still in his 20s when his mother reached out to ask him to return home and help to run The Rex. Said his daughter, “He moved back to Geyserville, which he was not thrilled to do.”

A few years later he took over as owner-operator. He bought a new sign and changed the name to Catelli’s the Rex.

He remained involved in the restaurant into the 1990s. The enterprise endured some major changes and vanished for a time before Nicholas and Domenica Catelli re-created it in its original heart-of-Geyserville space in 2010.

In November of 2016, the siblings hosted a party at Catelli’s that celebrated both the 80th anniversary of the restaurant founded by their late grandparents and also their father’s 80th birthday.

In his free time and his retirement, the straight-talking Richard Catelli loved to travel, play golf, cook and enjoy life with his friends. He was for years a blood donor and he helped to sustain Healdsburg’s food pantry.

His daughter said he could be a genuine pain, but at the same time “he had the biggest heart and he would always be available to help.”

In addition to his two children who run the restaurant, Catelli, who was married four times, is survived by daughter Alicia Catelli of Los Angeles and three grandchildren.

A celebration of his life is at 2 p.m. on Jan. 12 at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Healdsburg.

You can reach Staff Writer Chris Smith at 707-521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.