EAST LONGMEADOW – Mario’s Café Ambiance Secondo, a traditional Italian family-oriented restaurant, is tentatively set to open during the week of Christmas at 60 Shaker Road.

Carol Bernazki, co-owner of the restaurant, told Reminder Publications the original Mario’s Café was on State Street in Springfield for 16 years prior to closing more than a two decades ago. Bernazki was the original Mario’s first chef.

She added her daughter Nickki Teixeria, who is the restaurant’s chef and co-owner, also worked with her in the kitchen at the original Mario’s. The daughters of the original owners also co-own the new restaurant.

“We just want to bring it back,” she added. “People just don’t do the old style Italian dining anymore,” she noted. “It’s rush in, rush out. With [Mario’s], you come in, you sit down and the table’s yours for the night; stay, sit, drink, have a good time, play the piano, [and] enjoy yourself.”

The menu for the restaurant would consist of “old school Italian” dishes such as olivade – a mixture of green and kalamata olives with garlic, olive oil and pepper served on toast points – as well as other fare, including filet mignon in onions with a garlic and onion Genovese sauce served on angel head pasta with fresh parmesan Romano cheese.

Bernazki said during a private party a woman who grew up in Italy remarked that the Genovese sauce reminded her of her grandma’s Sunday dinners.

Other dishes include the beef Maximillian – filet mignon topped with prosciutto and mozzarella cheese, served in a Marsala sauce with tomatoes and mushrooms – macaroni pies and fresh veal.

“What we don’t make in-house is all going to be purchased locally,” she added. “The sausage is going to be homemade from an Italian company here in town. Tortellini are going to be homemade from another.”

Bernazki said although Mario’s doesn’t officially list Italian dishes such as chicken parmigan on its menu customers should feel inclined to order their favorite meals, which could be made depending on availability of the ingredients and the volume of customers coming through the restaurant’s doors.

Bernazki, a Chicopee resident who has been in the restaurant business for 35 years, said they chose the location because of its available banquet space with a newly renovated hall that could comfortably seat 120 people.

“East Longmeadow just doesn’t have many places if you wanted to hold a baby shower or bridal shower or a Jack and Jill or a birthday party,” she noted.

She added construction on the location began approximately four months ago.

The restaurant, which holds a full liquor license, also features a 30-seat bar equipped with small bistro tables, Bernazki said.

The main dining room sits 75 people, she noted.

Bernazki said there would be ample parking for the restaurant in front of the shopping plaza where Mario’s is located and also behind to the rear of the building. The owners also plan on expanding parking in the back lot.