‘Of course, without Alberto, it’s not the same place.’

In normal times, Sarno’s Caffe Dell’Opera in Hollywood was a raucous, happy place, filled with a colorful cast of singing waitresses, aspiring crooner/diners, bit actors, weightlifters, claimants to European royalty and an occasional visiting musical star.

But the atmosphere changed late last year. For a while, Dino Sarno admitted, “business was down because it made people sad to come here.�

The reason: the murder of owner Alberto Sarno, Dino’s brother, in October during an apparent holdup. Sarno, an opera singer and actor who started out as a cake-maker, was shot to death outside his gated Los Feliz-area home shortly after closing the restaurant.

Police arrested Ralph Mora, a parolee and drug addict, and charged him with murder. Mora is scheduled to go on trial Thursday. The key witness is Krysteen Ann Ackerman, a former waitress at Sarno’s, who has allegedly told prosecutors that she and Mora used heroin regularly and that she showed Mora where Sarno lived.

A second suspect is being sought.

The murder was the second restaurant tragedy to occur on the block. Two years earlier, the owner of Luigi’s, an eatery that also featured operatic singing, committed suicide after shooting one of his waitresses.

Luigi’s is under new ownership and has a new name, Pedro’s Grill. Sarno’s Caffe Dell’Opera, however, has changed little in appearance, except for some refurbishing.

“People tell me, ‘Please don’t change anything, don’t change the atmosphere,’ � said Silvano Sarno, Alberto’s widow, who now runs the restaurant side of the family business. “Of course, without Alberto, it’s not the same place.�

One addition is an oil painting of Alberto Sarno that hangs in the main dining room, near the spot where he serenaded customers every night.

Business at the restaurant has pretty much returned to normal, says Sarkis Seyissian, an operatic singer who became night manager after Sarno’s death.

Seyissian says he first visited Sarno’s 11 years ago on his birthday and became so entranced with the cafe that he missed few nights thereafter.

“He was like my soul brother so when they asked me (to become manager), there was no question� about accepting the job, he said of Sarno. “So many people say to me that they’re happy to see it (the restaurant) still going. He helped out so many singers that we have to keep the tradition alive. He and I spent many nights discussing voice.�

Sarno opened Caffe Dell’Opera in 1967 after returning from Italy, where he had studied opera for eight years. Later he played an opera singer in the movie “A Voice in the Night� with Aldo Ray and Jack LaRue.

Before opening the restaurant, the Sarnos started a bakery business. They moved West from Chicago in 1946 to open a cake and pastry shop on Vermont Avenue that is still in operation. The restaurant is next door.

Dino Sarno, who operates the bakery, says that eight months after the murder, he is still receiving condolences.

Singer Michelle Phillips “worked in our bakery when she was in high school . . . (she) called to offer her sympathies,� Dino Sarno said. “So did (comedian) Shecky Greene and the actress who starred in that movie (“Pvt. Benjamin�) with Goldie Hawn . . . Eileen Brennan. And a lot of others. They wanted us to know they care about us.�