The Brooklyn Paper / Julie Rosenberg

Be their guest: Nino (left) and Anthony Russo, two of the four brothers who own Gargiulo’s restaurant, which has been in Coney Island since 1907.

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Dining: Judging the giants

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There’s no question that you approach Gargiulo’s restaurant with a bit of trepidation.

First of all, it’s in Coney Island, a neighborhood whose solitary contribution to the American palate is six inches of salty offal stuffed into a bun.

Second of all, Gargiulo’s is the place your uncles and aunts — and their uncles and aunts — always raved about.

And third of all, there’s something disquieting about a restaurant that’s been around for a full century. What should be a cause for citywide celebration — after all, only 21 New York eateries have ever celebrated their 100-year anniversaries — somehow feels like a birthday party at a senior center.

And then you go to Gargiulo’s again. And you realize why so few restaurants even make it to see a paper anniversary, let alone a gold, diamond or emerald one.

The food, while not nouveau, fusion or trendy, is refreshingly not nouveau, fusion or trendy. You order a steak, it comes out cooked to perfection with a mound of potatoes and roasted vegetables — the same side dishes that most restaurants make you order as a side dish.

The signature spaghetti with lobster sauce is not a fey cream sauce that a lobster once sat next to, but a robust red sauce so chunky with lobster meat that your fork looks like Poseidon’s.

And it’s all served with an old-world charm, thanks to waiters like Giancarlo Lunardi, who’s been donning his tuxedo for 30 years (not the same tuxedo, mind you, but you get the idea).

The Gargiulo family opened the restaurant in 1907, and ran it for just under 60 years, until the Russo family bought it from them. The restaurant is now in the meaty hands of the four Russo brothers — Anthony, Nino, Michael and Victor — and three cousins.

GO Brooklyn asked Anthony Russo to share the secret of restaurant longevity.

There was a long pause.

“Well, I guess a strong family,” he said. “Both our family and the Gargiulo’s really paid attention to everything, and the restaurant moved from fathers to sons.”

The restaurant formally celebrated the anniversary on Thursday with a Catholic mass, a street-name change (West 15th Street is now “Gargiulo Way”) and a buffet worthy of the Gargiulo name.

Of course, the Borough President Markowitz was expected to attend.

©2007 The Brooklyn Paper