BY ELIZABETH KIM
Hearst Connecticut Media
Joe Fusaro, 60, attributes the discovery of his calling in life to the moment when his father, an olive and fig farmer in the southern Italian region of Calabria, placed an orange in his palm. He saw it as a kind of prophecy. From then on, he said he knew he wanted to be in the food business.
He was 3 years old.
Today, Fusaro and his wife, Elizabeth, are the mom-and-pop owners of one of Stamford”™s longest-running Italian deli and specialty grocery stores, Fusaro”™s Market and Deli, on High Ridge Road. The shop opened in 1989, billing itself as “the short-cut to Arthur Avenue,” the famed Italian culinary mecca in the Bronx. Since that time, it has drawn Italian food enthusiasts from all over the local area, including Greenwich, New Canaan and Darien.
Measuring only 1,100 square feet, the store offers a seven-day-week menu of familiar Italian deli fare like spaghetti and meatballs, chicken cutlets, broccoli rabe, and sausage and peppers, as well as three tightly packed grocery aisles with a medley of products imported from Italy. There are the usual suspects ”” cheeses, cured meats, olive oils, dried pasta, ground espresso and traditional desserts like biscotti ”” but also unexpected finds like an apple sauce from Mellin, an Italian company that specializes in baby food. Fusaro”™s also carries the company”™s pastina, designed to be a child”™s first pasta.
Asked how they came to carry a particular line, the answer is usually the same: someone had inquired about it once. “You have to take care of your customer,” said Joe, who sports a thick salt-and-pepper mane and keeps his cook”™s dish towel nearby. “Love your customer and your customer will love you.”
The road to starting his own business did not come quickly. After immigrating to Stamford with his family as a teenager, Joe eventually went to work at Bongiorno”™s, the pre-eminent family-owned supermarket in Waterside that catered not only to Italians but also Eastern European, Hispanic and other ethnic communities. The store, which operated for more than 50 years, closed in 2004 after it was sold to the Stop & Shop supermarket chain.
During its run, Joe was tapped as Bongiorno”™s store manager, a job that familiarized him with food vendors. He stayed there for 20 years, a long tenure that resulted in part because he was too ashamed to quit. Bongiorno”™s, he said, “was like a family to me.”
But when the opportunity arose to take over an existing grocery store called K”™s Market, he and his wife decided to make the leap. They borrowed $50,000, initially renting the store for three years before buying the property. About eight years ago, they spent an additional $100,000 to build a small kitchen, a move that enabled them to branch out into catering.
From the start, Joe and Elizabeth were determined to make the business a family affair, incorporating their three sons. At age 8, the oldest, Michael, was made to stand on a milk crate and work the cash register.
“We had teachers come in and say, ”˜My fifth-graders can”™t do what he does,”™” Elizabeth recalled with amusement.
Michael, now 32, still works alongside his parents, as does his brother John, who is 22. The Fusaros”™ middle son, Angelo, 28, is an accountant.
All of them juggle the cooking and cleaning. Elizabeth additionally handles the bookkeeping.
In the end, Fusaro says the business is all about nurturing relationships.
He recalled a woman from New Canaan who tried to leave him a $20 tip. He refused, instead telling her, “Just remember to come in again.”
Hearst Connecticut Media includes four daily newspapers: Connecticut Post, Greenwich Time, The Advocate (Stamford) and The News Times (Danbury.) See stamfordadvocate.com for more from this reporter.
