FOLLOW THE RED SAUCE TO BURBANK'S BEST ITALIAN DELI

GENERATIONS OF CUSTOMERS LOVE SHOPPING AT MONTE CARLO

- BY STEPHANIE BREIJO

STEPHANIE BREIJO Los Angeles Times

WHEN I want to feel closer to my late grandmother— and to my great-aunt, aunts and cousins— I drive to Burbank.

I head directly to the cookie case at Monte Carlo Italian Deli, passing beneath the wooden puppets that line the walls, and scan the rows of sweets for pignoli. I wander the aisles, still dumbstruck after all these decades: the countless jars of giardiniera, every twist and shape of dried pasta on offer, the familiar buzz of customers around the deli case all waiting for their number to be called.

By my count at least four generations of the Petrucelli line, by blood or by marriage, have loved shopping here, where retro neon signage welcomes you to a cornucopia of Italian excellence. On one side of the building is Monte Carlo, a well-stocked market and importer, and on the other, Pinocchio's: what feels like the last vestige of 1960s red-sauce, cafeteria-style dining.

It's a relic and a palace, built of sausage links, frozen manicotti, gasoline-like canisters of olive oil and a confounding Pinocchio theme. It should be made a local landmark and protected for as long as Los Angeles remains standing.