The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Liuzzi family still feeding customers after 40 years
NORTH HAVEN — What started with a man making cheese in his garage nearly half a century ago has turned into an iconic North Haven staple celebrating 40 years in business.
In 1981, Pasquale and Nicola Liuzzi, brothers who had immigrated to the United States from Italy, launched a cheesemanufacturing business with a storefront in North Haven.
Over time, the business grew, becoming the popular local Liuzzi Gourmet Food Market on State Street that not only offered locally made cheeses but prepared food, baked goods and imported Italian specialty items. The Liuzzi brothers’ children got involved, and then the family opened a new cheese plant in Hamden to increase production.
The North Haven-made cheese has since ended up on restaurant menus and stores as far away as Colorado and Texas, said Domenico Liuzzi, Pasquale Liuzzi’s son.
The Liuzzi family boasts five generations of cheesemakers. Domenico Liuzzi said his grandfather ran a cheesemaking business in Italy but had to close down when World War II came.
“At that point things were really hard for the family, and then my father kind of ventured off on his own when he was 15,” he said.
Pasquale Liuzzi immigrated to New York in 1962, Domenico Liuzzi said.
“He didn’t know a soul, he had $50 in his pocket, (a) true success story,” he said.
Pasquale Liuzzi quickly ended up in the New Haven area working for a cheese manufacturer, according to his son.
He and his brother launched their own business roughly 20 years later, working additional full-time jobs until they could get it off the ground. They would wake early to make the cheese, and during business hours Domenico Liuzzi’s mother and aunt ran the storefront, the younger Liuzzi said.
“I started working there probably when I was 13 years old, right after school,” he said.
Now, Domenico Liuzzi runs the store, though his father and uncle still are involved
Like his father, he’s in the business with his brother. Ralph Liuzzi heads up the cheesemaking operations, and the pair’s sister, Rosanna Liuzzi Guidone, also helps run the business.
“Our first exposure (to the business) was at about probably 8 years old. Before (my father) opened up the store he would make cheese out of our … garage, and as little kids we’d be cutting up the curds for him,” Ralph Liuzzi said.
While the family used to make cheese at its North Haven location, in 2006 they moved the plant to a location in Hamden to increase production, Domenico Liuzzi said.
Running operations at the cheese plant, Ralph Liuzzi has found his calling.
“I really enjoy the cheesemaking part of it, you know, it’s kind of like an art form. You get to express yourself … the satisfaction when you take something ... and transform it to something else,” he said.
That process starts, Ralph Liuzzi said, with the freshest milk he can find. Since each order of milk differs, he has to adapt as he goes along.
“If you were sculpting something it’s pretty much a mound of clay, right? And then you have to mold it into a piece of art, and that’s what we do every day,” he said.
Just inside the market entrance, a case of Liuzzi’s signature product tempts customers and Vinny Camera, who runs the cheese counter, doles out fresh mozzarella. Nearby, a refrigerator case holds shelves of pre-packaged Liuzzi cheeses — ricotta, burrata, fior di latte, mozzarella di bufala.
The latter cheese, made from water buffalo’s milk, is a relatively new addition to the Liuzzi supply and one of Domenico Liuzzi’s favorites.
“My brother has really perfected our bufala mozzarella,” he said. “It’s hard to actually duplicate what they do in Italy because, you know, the animals take on the aroma of the soil. … It’s always gonna be a little different, but I would say that we’ve really come close to the Italian version.”
People come from all over the state to shop at the market. According to Camera, some retirees
even make day trips from Florida.
On a recent morning, David Astorino traveled to the market from Prospect. He grew up in North Haven, he said, and has been a customer “since the day they opened except for the 13 years I was out of state.”
Standing at the cheese counter, Astorino was exuberant. He greeted a nearby stranger and said, “coming here makes me feel good.”
He makes the trek from Prospect regularly because the food is “authentic, and you’re not going to find cheese like this anywhere,” he said. “There’s nothin’ like it.”
Shelves are also stocked with Italian cookies, stuffed peppers and jars upon jars of olives, capers, pepperoncini and artichoke hearts.
Dried meats hang from the ceiling above one deli counter. Customers line up next to another to order freshly-made sandwiches.
Cases hold grab-and-go meals of lasagna, gnocchi and chicken parmigiana.
Mark Maresca, another longtime
customer, remembered when the store began offering those meals.
“When my kids were small it was a lifesaver ... to have highquality Italian food at your fingertips every day except Sunday,” he said.
A cooking enthusiast, Maresca loves shopping at Liuzzi’s.
“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve hopped in the car at quarter to six and ran over there like a maniac” after realizing an ingredient was missing, he said.
It’s not just the product but the customer service that impresses Maresca.
“One of the things that I really love about the place is that you tell them what you wanna make, and they hand you the best ingredients to make it,” he said. “If you really need something and (Domenic Liuzzi) doesn’t have it in the store he’ll find it.”
Maresca raves about “the imported Italian tuna in the glass jars. Americans don’t know tuna. They buy it in a can,” he said. But if “you make a sandwich with that (tuna), it’ll be the best sandwich you ever had.”
“It’s just magical. I mean that stuff is delicious. And I’ve only seen it in the jars at Liuzzi,” he said. “It’s things like that. It’s little things like that that keep his customers coming back.”
Maresca and other Liuzzi’s fans flocked to the market Saturday, not to shop but to celebrate the business’s 40-year milestone.
Domenico Liuzzi said customers who have been patronizing the store since it opened were there with their kids and grandkids.
He estimated that upward of 1,000 people visited the store throughout the evening Saturday for an anniversary celebration.
“It really was a nice time to reflect and say, ‘Wow, we’ve been here 40 years,’” Domenico Liuzzi said.
“The whole purpose of this anniversary celebration was to thank our community for their loyalty and years of patronage . ... Forty years is a milestone, most businesses don’t make it that long.”