From the Charleston Daily Mail: December 2nd, 2009 Some restaurants have a special sauce or 11 herbs and spices as their claim to fame. Julio's Cafe has Maria. For more than two decades, Maria Pasceri has been queen of the kitchen in this Italian eatery. She presides over its selection of hearty soups, makes its famous meatballs and lasagna, and sees that every chocolate eclair is crisp on the outside and perfectly gooey on the inside. "She my angel," said Pam Iaquinta, who owns and operates Julio's with her husband, Joe. Pasceri was 19 when she came to the United States with her husband 47 years ago from Italy's Calabria region. The couple lived near Newark, N.J., for 15 years before they moved to Clarksburg. Pasceri worked in a factory up North, but found no such work in West Virginia, so she applied for a job at the Sheraton Inn in downtown Clarksburg. "I'll go in, even if I do dishes," she recalled telling herself at the time. Pasceri knew that even if she started out on dishes, her hands wouldn't be in the dishwater long. She grew up with six sisters and two brothers, and says the experience prepared her for kitchen work - cooking. "I am from a big family and we always cook, prepare big meals," she said. After four years at the hotel, Maria was hired on as a cook at Julio's. She first worked for Joe Iaquinta's father, Frank, who opened the restaurant in 1967 with his wife, Virginia. Pasceri cooked with Frank for a couple of years before he became ill. In that time, however, he taught her all of his techniques and recipes. Now, Pasceri cooks alongside Joe Iaquinta, and the two still make many of Frank's specialties, like Julio's lasagna. Pasceri also has made her own contributions to the restaurant's roster. "We try to do a little bit of change," she said. Most of the soups Julio's serves, as well as some of the pasta dishes and desserts, are her creations. Her favorite dish to prepare, she says, is the white sauce pasta fagioles - pinto beans and pasta in a light cream sauce. "People love it," Pasceri said. "It's everybody's favorite." Pam Iaquinta says Julio's prides itself in serving high-quality food. Pasceri noted, "It's not a restaurant where they shove anything on a plate." Julio's buys its produce from Clarksburg's Produce House and doesn't begin preparing salads until just before lunch. Its high-quality olive oil, tomato products and pasta come from a market in Pittsburgh. "There you have anything you want from Italy," Pasceri said. But there are some things Julio's won't buy, no matter how high the quality. When she makes chicken soup, Pasceri boils a whole chicken to make the broth. "It's nothing in a can," she said. That meticulous preparation hasn't gone unnoticed. The New York Times ran an article about the restaurant in the late 1990s, and in 2007, Gourmet Magazine's Jan and Michael Stern gave it a glowing review in their column and a five-star rating on their blog, Roadfood.com. Several years ago, the West Virginia Symphony put up the Julio's kitchen crew at the Charleston Marriott to cook for Symphony Sunday. Perhaps more important are the local accolades the restaurant has earned. Ed and Mancie Blehschmidt say they regularly drive from their Morgantown home just to get a filet mignon from Julio's. "They just melt in your mouth," Ed said. "You have to call ahead and tell them to save you a piece for dinner." The Blehschmidts grew up in Clarksburg but say they didn't come to appreciate the local restaurant until they moved away. "There's two things Clarksburg does well - that's Italian food and hot dogs," Blehschmidt said.