The Deluxe Grill has been serving Geneva from the corner of North Genesee Street and Gates Avenue since 1933, when Italian immigrants Nicholas Aquilano and his wife Carrie Raphael built the place on two-foot-thick poured concrete footers and 12-inch beams. That sense of permanence extends to everything about the restaurant: the warm, dimly lit dining room feels like it has been absorbing family celebrations for decades because it literally has. Today it is run by Charlie Leggitt and his wife Linda, continuing a lineage of family ownership that has kept the kitchen's identity intact through nearly a century.

The menu is Italian-American comfort food done with care and without apology. The Veal Parmesan is a signature — reviewers call it out by name repeatedly, along with generous portions that represent genuine value. Handmade gnocchi with their house tomato sauce, baked lasagna with fresh pasta sheets and a specialty meat blend, Chicken French in lemon-butter sauce, and a Pasta Pleaser Plate that combines lasagna, manicotti, ziti, and spaghetti with meatballs are all staples. The seafood side is surprisingly deep for a red-sauce joint: pan-seared salmon with dill sauce, broiled seafood platters, stuffed haddock with shrimp, crab, and scallops, and lobster tail at market price. Prime rib runs on weekends. The Parmesan Paradise sampler — veal, chicken, and eggplant parm on one plate — is the move if you cannot decide.

The history here is remarkable and worth knowing. The restaurant was built in Geneva's Little Italy neighborhood, near Umbert Street (named after Italy's King Umberto at the suggestion of neighborhood patriarch Raymond Del Papa, who refused to have the street named after himself). Grandmother Carrie, known as "The Boss," ran the kitchen and created the signature sauce. The Christmas Eve tradition involved pushing white-tableclothed tables against the wall for a feast of seven fish dishes. When the family sold in 1988, they insisted nothing change. Dinner only, Tuesday through Saturday in winter, with Friday and Saturday nights running until 9 PM. This is date night for people who have been coming here since their parents brought them as kids, and it earns that loyalty honestly.