Trattoria Da Lina is a restaurant, born out of a promise from a son “Marcello Minna” to his mother “Mrs. Lina”, made at the time when the original Trattoria Da Lina was shutting down, back in Marcello’s hometown of Puglia.

The closing of the original restaurant was due to Marcello, and his brother leaving for school abroad. An event which left Mrs. Linna unable to continue operating the restaurant on her own, and so; she was left with only one option, to close the family restaurant. Marcello seeing the heartbreak of his mother over loosing something that had been theirs for so long, decided to make a solemn promise “to one day reopen the family restaurant, and continue the tradition that had been started by his grandparents.”

Soon after he embarked to the States to study, and eventually settled down there. For many years he worked tirelessly never forgetting his promise, it took an excess of twenty years for him to raise the money necessary to open the restaurant. Marcello’s odyssey finally came to an end in 2017, when he opened the new Trattoria Da Lina here in Takoma Park, bringing with him a small but wonderful piece of his beloved Italy to his new community.