Mario Ferrari, Legendary Nashville Restaurateur, Dies at 80 [Update]

UPDATE: A celebration of the life of Mario Ferrari will be held at 2 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 18, at Valentino's Restaurant, 1907 West End, according to his daughter Gina. "It's what he'd want. A big party with Christmas decorations and red, green and white — the colors of the Italian flag and also Christmas," she said.

Mario Ferrari, whose Italian fine-dining spot Mario's Ristorante was a blockbuster on the Nashville dining scene for more than four decades, has died at the age of 80.

Ferrari died Tuesday night in hospice care after a long battle with cancer. He had retired from the business a few years ago; his pioneering restaurant at 2005 Broadway was destroyed by fire in 2006 and never reopened.

Ferrari's contributions to the Nashville restaurant community were recognized in May of this year at the Savor Nashville event, which gathers top chefs from Nashville and across the United States. The inaugural Savor Award was given to Ferrari to honor his long career, which started back in the late '60s, when Nashville restaurants couldn't serve alcohol, and international haute cuisine was nearly unheard of.

In August, after a diagnosis of terminal brain cancer, Ferrari threw a birthday party for himself, which was also a celebration of his own life, said his daughter, Gina Ferrari, who worked in her father's business for 35 years.

The larger-than-life restaurateur had many friends across the Nashville community. Charles Strobel — the founding director of the charity Room In The Inn, which provides services to the city's homeless — was a longtime friend and lauded Ferrari's charitable generosity and civic spirit.

"Mario had a big heart and loved Nashville and loved all of the energy and enthusiasm that living in this city brings, and he wanted to be a part of providing the very best hospitality that the city could offer. But he never forgot to help those in need,” Strobel said.