About Us
On August 25th 1913, 18-year-old Filippo Trani
arrived on Ellis Island with $20 in his pocket. His former home was the island
of Ischia, off the coast of central Italy. Filippo journeyed across the country
to the small seaport town of San Pedro and would make it his home. In 1925,
after years of farming, fishing and committed hard
work,
Filippo
opened his first food establishment, the “Majestic Café”.
In 1937, at the age of 13 Filippo’s son Jim, joined his father at the
Majestic. Filippo instilled in Jim a love for cooking, which he in turn passed
onto his son Jim Jr. In 1990, father and son continued the family tradition
by opening a fourth Trani restaurant in San Pedro.
Now. 17 years later, Jim Jr. is carrying on the family tradition by bringing
his sons into the family business. Son and executive chef Dustin, has studied
at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone and has recently returned
from a 5-week apprenticeship at the Mandarin Oriental in Bangkok.
Son Jimmy, who majored in marketing, enjoys interacting with the customers
and selecting the wines for the
wine
list.
J. Trani’s is as popular now as the day it first opened over 17 years
ago, if not more so.
When asked what the secret to such a successful business
was, owner chef Jim Trani
replied, “In a business where 99% of all new restaurants fail within
the first year, you have to do something special that separates you from
other establishments."
 |
Jim and Dustin Trani (1990) |
The strong tradition at Trani’s has led to name recognition throughout
the restaurant industry in Los Angeles. "Our goal is to provide our customers
with a quality
product
at a reasonable price. I have friends who eat out in West L.A. and Beverly
Hills, where the typical price-per-head is around $70. Time and time
again they tell me that the food at Trani's
is much better... and
at half the price!"
When asked if he would ever consider moving the business to the West Side Jim responded, “We respect our community and our customers are loyal; I’m not about to break an 80 year-long streak”.
