Mary Giambelli

Mary Giambelli, a philanthropist and New York City restaurateur whose renowned Giambelli’s 50th prepared a dinner for Blessed John Paul II, died Dec. 17. She was 97.

Cardinal Dolan offered Mrs. Giambelli’s Funeral Mass Dec. 27 at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

From 1956 on, Mrs. Giambelli, an Italian immigrant, and her late husband, Francesco, pioneered high-end Italian restaurant service. Their first restaurant, Giambelli’s Ristorante, became known as Giambelli’s 50th when it moved to 50th Street between Park and Madison Avenues, and they later opened Mercurio’s.

With the opening of Giambelli’s Ristorante, Italian fine dining arrived in New York City. It became widely known to serious chefs in New York and throughout the nation. In 1995, Giambelli’s 50th prepared a dinner for Pope John Paul II, Cardinal O’Connor and 50 other cardinals during the pope’s visit to the United States. The celebrated dinner was one of many prepared for distinguished guests, including heads of state, through the decades.

Mrs. Giambelli continued to run Giambelli’s 50th after her husband’s death in 2006. When she retired in 2009, she closed the restaurant.

She and her husband were honored in 2004 by the archdiocesan Ladies of Charity, which presented the couple with its Spirit of St. Nicholas Award at the Cardinal’s Christmas Luncheon.

Born Marianna Anzalone in Ventimiglia di Sicilia, Itay, she arrived in the United States at age 5.

Philanthropic endeavors of the Giambellis included funding for a new surgical care wing at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Manhattan in response to 9/11; the Archdiocese of New York; St. Virgilius School in Broad Channel, Queens; and the Columbus Citizen Foundation Adopt-a-Scholar Fund.

She is survived by her sister, Jean Florio. Burial was to be at a later date at St. Charles Cemetery in Farmingdale.