After reaching bestseller status, On the Rocks will become a movie

When director Ryan Rust first read On the Rocks, he was struck by the how vivid the book was.

The memoir chronicles the rise and fall of McKees Rocks’ acclaimed Primadonna Restaurant in the 1990s, as told through the eyes of its larger-than-life owner, Joe Costanzo Jr.

“What I really liked about the book was that I loved Joe,” Rust says. “I love that entrepreneur sense, someone that came from nothing and was able to build an empire of his own in the Rocks of all places … My mind starts going … ‘I could picture this happening.’”

Rust’s vision became a reality when On the Rocks moved into the first stages of film production this month, two years after the memoir’s release. Picked up by his production company, Venture Road Pictures, and produced by Krystle Grandy and a Pittsburgh-based crew, Rust will direct a documentary based on the book that blends interviews with reenactments.

Written by Joe’s daughter, Maria Costanzo Palmer, who worked at the Primadonna, and her mentor Ruthie (Dines) Robbins, On the Rocks already sounds like a movie. Its arc catapults Costanzo, who grew up in Greenfield, from a postal worker to a radio host and restauranteur serving award-winning Italian food to celebrities including Jamie Lee Curtis, Danny Aiello, and Rocky Bleier (whose recollections appear in the book). Costanzo’s ill-fated 1994 run for Allegheny County Commissioner ultimately ended in a tax evasion investigation and a stint in federal prison. After his departure from the restaurant, the Primadonna was sold, and it closed permanently in 2011.

“One thing is that Maria never sugar-coated the book,” Joe Costanzo tells Pittsburgh City Paper. “Nobody wants to read a book that’s like a Wikipedia [page].”

“We put our lives on the line and told our story like it was,” says Donna Costanzo, married to Joe for 51 years.

Both Costanzos appear in the first round of film interviews, along with Pino Costanzo, a cousin who became part of the Primadonna’s original kitchen staff after immigrating from Italy. Drawing from these initial interviews, Venture Road will create a short or sizzle reel, with plans to secure financing and distribution for the feature-length project.

On the first day of filming at Rico’s Restaurant in Ross Township — a 46-year-old Italian spot Joe Costanzo still frequents — Pittsburgh connections abounded.

“You feeling up to work the door this week?” Rico’s owner Dave Lorenzini jokes with Costanzo.

“Being able to tell the story of Pittsburghers is so fun for me and rewarding,” producer Krystle Grandy tells City Paper. Her mother held her baby shower at Rico’s 36 years ago.

Rust — a Moon Township native and History Channel fan who says he always wanted to tell “legacy stories” — is also wrapping the documentary Beyond the Sole about cobbler Mario Ulizzi of Sewickley Shoe Repair. Coincidentally, Ulizzi worked as a dishwasher at the Primadonna and took his wife on their first date there. Rust plans to screen an On the Rocks trailer before Beyond the Sole’s premiere this winter.

Two years after her book’s release, and 20 years after her father left the Primadonna, Maria Costanzo Palmer says she couldn’t have predicted how much the story would resonate.

After debuting the book at a 500-person event at the Heinz History Center, On the Rocks has landed among top-selling culinary memoirs nationwide, including those by the late Anthony Bourdain. In addition to the documentary, the family is developing an audiobook version of On the Rocks read by Joe Constanzo.

“One of the things I think we all underestimated is [how much] Pittsburgh people love Pittsburgh. But there’s even an ante up to that, and that is [that] throughout the country, there is a strong tie to food nostalgia,” Constanzo Palmer says. “People have these wonderfully embedded memories of bygone eras, places that they used to love and frequent, and maybe even their parents loved and frequented, ‘our place.’”

To give readers a Primadonna throwback, Costanzo Palmer has continued hosting pop-ups, along with “Cook ’n Book” events — three-hour immersive experiences where attendees cook a family recipe, grab a plate, then discuss On the Rocks with the Costanzo family.

“It’s been amazing to go to our events and see people come up to my dad and just be in tears because their mother loved the restaurant, and their mother has now passed away,” Costanzo Palmer says. “That has been a very humbling, and, I think, a very wonderful thing for my dad, having stepped out of the business, being able to come in and still touch people’s lives in a different way — still through food, but also now through stories.”

“For me, I[’ve] had a fabulous ride,” Joe Costanzo tells CP. “I wish things would have ended a little bit differently, but if it didn’t happen the way it did, I wouldn’t be here [doing this] now.”

This article appears in Election Guide Oct. 8-14, 2025.