When the U.S. Small Business Administration recently named Angelo’s restaurant on Federal Hill its family-owned business of the year, proprietor Bob Antignano laid out a spread that included veal and peppers and fried calamari.

Governor Carcieri, Sen. Jack Reed and Mayor David Cicilline were delighted to speak at the ceremony. And why not? This is Rhode Island’s epicenter, where pols and operatives go to mix with the people, and the food and atmosphere bespeak tradition.

Cicilline was telling me he’d often come on a Saturday to get his late grandmother, Lucy, an eggplant sandwich.

Angelo’s, established in 1924, is a comfort zone. Folks devour pasta and chicken cutlets, and you can sit at a communal table. In the middle of the restaurant is an old-fashioned menu board. A model train plies elevated tracks. Angelo’s is a good place to exchange gossip. I’ve often met with politicians here. I’d like to think they are intimidated by my photo on the wall, but it seems not and, indeed, some of these folks move in a blur.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Lincoln Almond brought New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani around in 1994. Now there was a guy with a keen appreciation of Italian meatballs.

Giuliani was under some fire because, in his home state, he’d endorsed Democratic Gov. Mario Cuomo. But Giuliani told me he thought folks might admire a politician frank enough to say he was doing what most of them sometimes do: vote for someone from the other party. He said, “I was being advised by some political thinkers, friends etc. to not endorse, just to remain silent, or to do a token endorsement, and I thought it would be much more refreshing that, instead of doing that, I told the truth about what I was actually going to do.”

I had an odd interview here in 1996 with former Providence Mayor Joseph Paolino about whether he was going to run for Congress, 2nd District.

We sat down, he hesitated, then said no. But it was such a close call. Only two days before, he’d changed his voting address from Providence’s East Side (in the 1st District) to Narragansett. Indeed, only two hours before our lunch, he’d gotten a driver’s license with the new address.

But he said that as he was driving up Atwells Avenue, heading into the Angelo’s parking lot, he was overcome by doubts, and now, over meat ravioli, he cited concerns for his family life and a lack of a political appetite.

Still, he mentioned the prospect of changing his mind yet again and in fact he did, only to lose the Democratic primary.

When I think of Angelo’s, I think of Christine Manfredi, who waits on me. But you may be more familiar with server Lori Manfredo, or, certainly, her son, whom I met there not long ago: boxer Peter Manfredo Jr.

You might see Providence Police Chief Dean Esserman, or Pawtucket Red Sox General Manager Lou Schwechheimer, or state Rep. David Caprio, or U.S. Rep. Jim Langevin. Then-Sen. Lincoln Chafee was here the day after he won his 2006 GOP primary; Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse was here the day he beat Chafee in the general election.

Speaking of Esserman: He had a Super Bowl proposition for me. I’d have to buy him lunch if his Giants beat my Patriots. Of course, he’d treat if the Pats won, but when I said I didn’t think a police chief should be betting, he said there was no element of chance — it was a certainty that the Giants were going to win.

Fortunately, I didn’t agree to the deal. But how did Esserman get that inside information?

M. Charles Bakst is The Journal’s political columnist.

mbakst@projo.com