Linn Memorial United Methodist Church will host a special Italian restaurant on Sunday to benefit the Fayette Senior Center.

Linn UMC Pastor Bill O’Neal and members of the church are cooking up a homemade menu, with service scheduled from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. at the senior center. Diners must have a reservation, and seating is filling up quickly. (See ad with QR code on Page 4 to make reservations). The cost for a meal is $15 per person, or $8 for kids aged eight and younger.

The menu includes Chicken Bianco, a breaded chicken breast with Bianco wine sauce with cheese on top of pasta, Spaghetti with marinara sauce (fresh-made meatballs optional), Fettuccine Alfredo, Fettuccine with Broccoli, and Lasagna. All dishes will be paired with an authentic St. Louis Hill-style salad, drinks, and a dessert.

All dishes will be made to order and come with full-service dining. Church members will serve as waiters, bussers, dishwashers, and prep cooks.

As was reported by the Advertiser in August, the Fayette Senior Center is operating on a much smaller budget this year, as funds from Aging Best, the organization that funnels state and federal funding to such facilities, slashed Fayette’s budget by around 30 percent. A nine-member board helps the center meet its regular expenses, such as ballooning food costs, salaries, and maintenance expenses of the approximately 75-year-old building. Organizations, individuals, and businesses have all contributed donations to the center in the wake of the funding shortfall.

Pastor O’Neal has operated the Italian Restaurant fundraiser before at other parsonages before coming to Linn UMC in Fayette. He resurrected the idea when he saw that the Senior Center was in need.

And O’Neal is well acquainted with the menu. As a teenager, he learned to cook at Massa’s, an Italian restaurant in the St. Louis suburb of Kirkwood, where he grew up.

“I always loved to cook. So when I became a pastor, we needed to do fundraisers for our youth mission trips,” O’Neal explained. That’s when the Italian Restaurant was born.

“People would walk into the church and you would feel like you were in an actual Italian restaurant by candlelight,” he recalled.

The Italian Restaurant was also hit in Waynesville and Troy, where he ministered before coming to Fayette.

“I was talking to Jennifer over at the Senior Center this summer. And, I was like, well, we used to do this Italian Restaurant thing. So that’s what we’re going to try to do at Linn Memorial,” O’Neal said.

He said the kitchen at the Fayette Senior Center is already set up to prepare the high-end Italian dishes. Linn Memorial is covering the cost of the ingredients. All proceeds will be donated to the Senior Center.

Because of the fresh, made-to-order menu, walk-ins and to-go orders will not be accepted. All diners must have a reservation.