Our story · Over 30 Years in Business
The nickname that became a Naples institution
Long before there was a storefront, there was a folding table at the Saturday farmers market — and a line that formed before the jars were even unpacked.
Ela Vivonetto grew up in the kitchen. She's a second-generation Vivonetto of Vivonetto's Restaurant in Naples, where the family recipes — the marinara, the meatballs, the slow Sunday sauces — were handed down the old way: by standing at the stove next to someone who loved you.
After years in catering, Ela began bottling those recipes and selling them at the local farmers market. Every Saturday, as she arrived with her crates, vendors and regulars would call out the same greeting: “Here comes the sauce lady!” They said it so often that when she outgrew the market booth and opened her own kitchen and storefront, the name was already chosen for her.
Ela's own kitchen has been through more than one address. Before settling into the current storefront on Tamiami Trail, The Sauce Lady got its start at an earlier location nearby — same recipes, same person behind the counter the whole time. Between the family restaurant, the catering years, and both storefronts, Ela has now spent close to three decades feeding Naples.
Today, The Sauce Lady is part specialty kitchen, part Italian market, and part answer to the eternal question of what's for dinner. The refrigerated cases are stocked every morning with small-batch sauces, soups, fresh ravioli, baked lasagna, and frozen entrées ready to thaw and bake. The ovens turn out garlic knots with a local fan club, crusty loaves, Italian desserts — and now, hand-stretched pizza too.
Ela still caters everything from a dinner for two to celebrations of a hundred or more, and she still sets aside a taste of each day's cooking, because the recipe isn't finished until it tastes like family.
Family recipes, handed down for generations. You can really taste the difference.
In the press
A few of the write-ups Naples media has done on The Sauce Lady over the years.
- Naples Daily News — "Know: Sauce Lady finally cooks up local restaurant"
- SWFL Spotlight — "More Than Sauce at The Sauce Lady"
- Trip.com — The Sauce Lady, Inc.
- Chamber of Commerce — The Sauce Lady and Market
- Restaurantji — The Sauce Lady Inc.
- Naples Daily News — "Know: Sauce Lady opens Buffetto in East Naples"