It was 30 years ago next week that Mike and Kathie Gordon quietly opened the celebrity hotspot Toscana at the urging of their dear friend and legendary trumpeter Doc Severinson. It was the first of a soon-to-be boom of Italian restaurants along San Vicente Boulevard and quickly became a paparazzi magnet.

It's where Tom Cruise took Nicole Kidman on one of their first dates and has been the Sunday dinner tradition for the Affleck family over the years. More recently, composer and music producer David Foster needed a place for a last-minute respite for friends Andrea Bocelli, Josh Groban, Barbara Streisand and others following a long day of rehearsal for the Grammys and brought them to Toscana to relax and share a Tuscan supper.

Still going strong, the Gordons will be on the floor greeting guests and giving a month-long nod in June to the original 1989 menu that started the story. The kitchen will offer classic dishes like salsicce all' uccelletto; ravioli radicchio; scampi e fagioli; pollo al mattone; costolette d'agnello alla trevisana; and fiorentina ala bracie, among others that were featured at the opening of the restaurant. They've also installed a new executive chef, Luca Crestanelli of Toscana's sister restaurant S.Y. Kitchen in Santa Ynez, who aside from being famous for his lamb shank and wild mushroom pappardelle, plans to fill the menu with a fresh breath of colorful produce.

Because Mike and I are not in the kitchen or on the floor, we can't recall why some original items floated off

the menu, Kathie tells L.A. Weekly. One of my favorites is radicchio ravioli. It's so delicious, but it's made with a lot of cream and people in Brentwood just don't order it. They're fussy about what they eat and don't want a lot of fat. There was also a fabulous little calamari soup with Parmesan and garlic which disappeared, I have no idea why. But we're bringing them back for the anniversary.

The couple ? who have been married 32 years ? had no restaurant experience at all when they started, only good business acumen and a passion for northern Italian cuisine. Mike's day job was being a CPA and he took a chance with Kathie at branching out. They attribute family and the ability to select a great team both in the kitchen and the front to their success. But they didn't just go in blind, they did their homework. Kathy went to UCLA for classes on restaurant development and business management.

It's advice Mike shares when mentoring kids at his entrepreneurship class at Crenshaw High School.

I told them, the first thing you need is passion, he says on a phone call from S.Y. Kitchen. If you're not passionate about it, don't do it. You're going to have bumps and you have to survive the bumps. From a technical point of view, I always advise folks to create a written business plan, not just an idea in your head. Who are you customers??

The couple also credits family with their staying power. One of their original partners Agostino Sciandri had his family involved while Kathie and Mike toiled in the kitchen. Born in the small town of Gris di Bicinicco in northern Italy, Toscana chef de Cuisine Samuele Minin grew up in his family's restaurant.

There were about four or five brothers who started with us and one of them stayed with us throughout the years, says Mike. Most of them came out of restaurant families. They grew up making cappuccino in the family bar and moved on to food later. Then our son opened Nerano in Beverly Hills, our grandson just opened a BBQ pop-up. Our kids are all foodies and want to carry on the family torch. It's contagious.

Neither the Gordons, nor partner Severinsen for that matter (now 92 and still performing after years as Johnny Carson's musical sidekick on The Tonight Show), have any intention of slowing down. The lease on the space ? which expanded with the adjacent Bar Toscana ? is up in November, and they've signed another 10-year lease with two five-year options.

And then some things ? like the traditional Tuscan raw vegetable pinzimonio they are famous for ? never change.

Very early on, we went to a restaurant called Bice, which was an old Milanese trattoria, says Kathie looking back on years the couple spent in northern Italy. We were having dinner, and here was this little old nonna in her slippers and housedress shuffling around in this really busy trattoria delivering food at her own pace taking care of everyone. I said to everybody at the table ? 'one day that's going to be me.'?