The Mentesana Family

Posted on Posted onBy Jen Mentesana

KNOW YOUR NEIGHBORS

The Mentesana Family

Family members: Jon and Jen (Wisot) Mentesana
Olivia (20) Nicolas (10) Andrew (8)

Neighborhood: We just moved to Valmonte but have lived in the Montemalaga neighborhood for the past 5 years.

How they got here: We have lived in PV for almost 6 years. We moved from Manhattan Beach in 2014 but I (Jen) grew up in PV. John grew up in Livingston, NJ and moved to Manhattan Beach in the early 90’s. We met in 2003 when we were both working in the broadcast media business. After we married, we were living in Manhattan beach and in 2012, we started to look for more space for our growing family. At around the same time, John left corporate America and came home one day and presented me with the idea that we would start a business together. John’s authentic Italian upbringing and grandmother’s dough recipe inspired us to start testing menu items and making pizzas for friends and family in our backyard wood-fired oven. My knowledge of marketing and catering, as well as passion for community and the south bay seemed like the perfect match for a business partnership. We spent the next two years researching, writing a business plan, and searching for the perfect neighborhood location to open our first authentic Neapolitan pizzeria. There, Locale90 Neapolitan Pizzeria was born. Two months after we opened the Riviera Village location in July of 2014, we moved to PV and never looked back.

A few words to describe our family:
Passionate, loving, energetic, spread thin and…”we are fun”!

Mentesana Family
“It is my joy and privilege to raise our children in the same amazing place as I was raised and I know dozens of parents on the hill who grew up here and feel the same way. That’s why there are so many of us who come back. Palos Verdes is not one place, a cliff, a view, a school, or a landmark, it is about the people, and is a place in our hearts that brings us all together…                                                              
-Jen Mentesana

SOMETHING YOUR NEIGHBORS MIGHT BE SURPRISED TO KNOW:  We are both country folk at heart. Although John grew up in New Jersey and lived only 40 minutes from New York City, his favorite place as a child was their family vacation home in the mountains of Pennsylvania. He rode horses, and loved the outdoors. I (Jen) had a similar childhood, spending many weekends at our family home in Ojai, and in PV riding  horses around the hill. This passion for country living and finding peace in the outdoors motivated us to purchase a 2nd home in Santa Ynez, California so we  could provide the same sense of freedom and connection to nature for our children.

 

FAVORITE SPOT IN PALOS VERDES:Honestly, our favorite place in PV is probably the PV Little League field. Although we enjoy the views of Catalina, spending nights around the fire with friends  at PBC or the Beach Club, the sense of community you feel when walking down the steps to the lower field at Valmonte and knowing you’ll spend the next couple of hours cheering on your kids, enjoying a Bristol Burger and chatting with neighbors and friends, is what this place is all about.

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