The Inland Press-Enterprise has a story about Anthony Vernola, owner of the landmark Magic Lamp Inn along Route 66 in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. The Vernola family is having a shopping development in Mira Loma named after them.
Anthony Vernola’s father ran a farm in that area; the farm, like many others, is now long-gone because of development in that region. Vernola bought the Magic Lamp in 1975 as an investment.
With its trademark genie lamp and real gas flame beckoning passers-by, the Magic Lamp Inn has been a Foothill Boulevard fixture since 1955. Vernola thought being a restaurateur would be a better life than toiling on the family’s farms.
When he was in high school, he listened longingly as his friends talked about the fun things they had planned for Saturdays and Sundays. “I hated the weekends, because my dad would get me out of bed to go work on the ranch,” Vernola said.
“I thought (the restaurant) would be a cleaner business,” he said. Little did he realize he’d put in long hours, just like his father and grandfather.
“If I wanted to work seven days a week, I should have stayed on the ranch,” Vernola joked.
The Magic Lamp still thrives, while nearly all of Vernola’s farm is gone.