His given name was Lawrence Joseph Bongiovanni, but to the wider community he will always be remembered as Salvatore Scallopini.

Bongiovanni, a longtime area restaurateur and founder of the popular local Italian restaurant chain, died Sunday at age 82. The official cause of death was respiratory failure, his son Joe Bongiovanni said, adding that his father had a troubled heart and a number of procedures over the years.

"He was really passionate about our business," Joe said. "He loved being a restaurant guy. Everything he did, all his life, he woke up thinking about it and went from spot to spot thinking about it."

The son of Sicilian immigrants, Larry Bongiovanni grew up on Detroit's east side and began his restaurant career as a cook at J.L. Hudson's in downtown Detroit after returning in 1956 from a two-year stint in the U.S. Army.

From Hudson's, he took a second job as a chef at the General Motors Tech Center in Warren, where "he gained the confidence necessary to embark on a long career of businesses he was associated with," according to a statement from the family.

In 1967, Bongiovanni purchased his first restaurant, a 24-hour diner in Livonia called The Nugget. He operated a number of restaurants through the years, including Squires Table in Walled Lake, Larry's Saloon in Warren, Mr. Flood's Party in Ann Arbor and Detroit and Trattoria Bongiovanni in Ann Arbor.

In 1982, Bongiovanni, along with sister Sarina, converted their flailing second location of the Nugget on 12 Mile in Madison Heights into the first Salvatore Scallopini, serving affordable and crowd-pleasing Italian favorites in a cozy, family-friendly environment.

"The little pasta place is a genuine winner, bursting with vitality and a sort of infectious cheeriness," wrote former Free Press Restaurant Critic Molly Abraham in her June 1984 review of the original location.

"Molly Abraham wrote an article and it turned the whole world for us," Joe said. "We’d been open since October of '82. He fired a chef from the kitchen. I’d just come home from college and started working in the kitchen. He and I, from that point, we did my mom's and grandma’s recipes. And then Molly came in... That article she wrote, it was almost like it opened up the whole world to us. We had to put a heater outside for the people waiting in line.”

It was still a few years before Olive Garden would enter the metro Detroit market, but the Bongiovannis made the trip down to Indianapolis to get an early look at their incoming competition.

"Dad said, ‘We can do better than that,'" Joe said, recalling his father's reaction to Olive Garden. "So we pressed on with our ideas and where we were going. He really thought he had something that could grow. And always from the day we opened the first restaurant, he would say, 'This thing is going to take off and we’re going to open a bunch of these.'"

And so it came to pass. Bongiovanni franchised the Scallopini brand, growing it to 13 locations around southeast Michigan and one in Indianapolis -- right on the competition's doorstep.

Today, four locations remain in Birmingham, Eastpointe, Grosse Pointe Woods and the original in Madison Heights. The Birmingham location, which recently underwent a three-month-long renovation and modernization, is still owned and operated by the Bongiovanni family. So is the Birmingham outpost of the buzzy Luxe Bar & Grill. (The other Scallopinis and the Grosse Pointe Farms Luxe are owned by former employees.)

Larry Bongiovanni remained involved until the end.

"He was incessant about being out and about and staying relevant and staying attuned," Joe said. "We would see him in Birmingham probably twice a week or three times a week. ... And he would just go places. He heard Parc opened up and just went to eat lunch. He would do that on a whim. He was always interested in what everyone else was doing -- and passing judgment.”

“He was great," said Joe's wife, Kristin. "He got up every day and went to all these restaurants. Made his stops. Said hello. Talked to customers. Things we didn’t know and see all the time. Little silent things that he would do. ... A lot of the employees are like, 'Oh my gosh! You never knew how many times he tucked some money into our pockets or our aprons and said 'Thank you.' I keep hearing those stories that we never knew.”

She said that Bongiovanni was scouting new restaurant locations up until a few weeks ago, despite his declining health.

"Into his 80s Larry was up to date on the entire metro Detroit restaurant scene and was

visiting new places and still thinking and working on new restaurant ideas," the family statement said. "He will certainly leave a lasting legacy upon Detroit hospitality."

He is survived by his wife, three children and five grandchildren.

Visitation is from 2-9 p.m. Sunday, May 12, at Wujek-Calcaterra & Sons in Sterling Heights. Funeral mass will begin at 10 a.m. Monday, May 13, at St. Lawrence Catholic Church in Utica.

Send your dining tips to Free Press Restaurant Critic Mark Kurlyandchik at 313-222-5026 ormkurlyandc@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @MKurlyandchik and Instagram @curlyhandshake. Read more restaurant news and reviews and sign up for our Food and Dining newsletter.