Casa Emigranti Italiani
" To Remember and Understand"
Hartford, CT
ppirrott
La Rosa, Giuseppe
Nati a Canicattini nel 1924 lui e nel 26 la moglie Giuseppina, i LaRosa, sposati nel 1944, sono emigrati per il Canada nel 1952: prima Giuseppe e due anni dopo la moglie e i due figli, Giuseppe nato nel 1946 e Tina nata nel 1948. Il padre di Pippo abitava in America da tantissimi anni, forse dal 1926 o 1927, ma per chi sa quale motivo Giuseppe e la sua famiglia non erono riusciti ad entrare negli Stati Uniti.
Dopo sette anni a Montreal sono riusciti ad essere ammessi in America e di riunirsi con il padre di Pippo ad Hartford dove costui aveva dato a vita a un negozio alimentare la cui salsiccia era molto famosa e voluta! Pippo e sua moglie prenderanno le retini del negozio nel 1970 e nel 1974 Tina e suo marito Joe Bonacquisto faranno parte del giro d'affari.
Pippo e la sua famiglia hanno veduto il piccolo negozio diventare un successo nella comunita' Italiana di Franklin Ave. e della citta di hartford e dintorni!
Pippo e' deceduto il Settembr 1991 ( preceduto dalla morte del padre che avvenne il marzo 1990) mentre la moglie e' deceduta nel 2007.
Tina e Joe continuano a lavorare ancor oggi nel negozio aiutati da uno dei due figli mentre Giuseppe, fratello di Tina, scelse il campo dell'educazione ed ha lavorato tantissimi anni nelle scuole di Manchester!
FESTIVAL OFFERS CHANCE TO FRITTER AWAY THE DAY: [STATEWIDE EDITION]
The vegetable fritters were frying and the specialty coffees were brewing as dozens of the region's restaurants, struggling with a still-sluggish economy, made a bid for new customers Saturday.
Restaurants served food and beverages from around the world at the New England Open Food Festival, which continues today from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the Farmington Polo Grounds.
Saturday's on-and-off showers kept attendance sparse, but many restaurateurs viewed the event as more of a promotional activity than a money-maker anyway.
"Things are very tight right now, especially for restaurants," said Tina Bonacquisto, who with her husband Joseph owns La Rosa Products Co. in Hartford's South End. "Upper-scale restaurants are having a hard time," she said.
La Rosa , a 60-year-old family business that specializes in Italian sausage and imports olive oils, operates a deli and supplies restaurants.
"Holidays are great, but they don't last forever," Bonacquisto said. "We try to fill in with something like this to help our business."
La Rosa clinched the top prize in a competition among festival vendors Saturday with its "hye roller," -- cold cuts, cheese, spinach and marinated vegetables rolled up in cracker bread.
Running a festival food booth is a grind, but "if we can get four or five new customers, it's worth it," said Karen Tkaczuk, co-owner of The Coffee Encounter in Farmington, which was serving latte and cappuccino.
People "are being more careful about how they're spending their money," but construction workers to "suits" (business people) are discovering alternatives to supermarket drip coffee, said Tkaczuk.
She and husband Nick spent years learning about coffee in the Seattle area, where gourmet coffee is practically an obsession.
Consumers who used to go out to eat once a week may now eat out only once a month, so "you have to be perfect," said Ve Do, a manager of Bamboo Grill, a Vietnamese restaurant in Canton and festival participant. "You make a mistake, and they won't forget it."
Clement Rozario is opening his first Indian restaurant -- Uptown India -- Tuesday on Route 44 in Canton, so exposure at the festival was particularly important.
He brought his grandmother over from India two years ago and has been getting recipes from her ever since. He's hoping his festival offerings such as samosas -- fried vegetable turnovers laced with the spice cumin -- and mango lassi -- a yogurt shake -- will entice customers to his restaurant.
If Sandi Mahoney of Harwinton is any indication, festival vendors got their wish of winning new customers.
"We always go to the same restaurants," Mahoney complained. So she tried something new Saturday and liked it -- a rice, seaweed and seafood roll from the Murasaki Japanese Restaurant in Simsbury.
The festival is the first food fair put on by Matthew Essig, president of United Expo's Inc. in Rockville, who is planning a harvest festival for this fall.
(Copyright @ The Hartford Courant 1996
La Rosa's Market Still Going Strong
The Hartford Courant
April 14, 2011
Eatery In Hartford's South End Has Been Serving Italian Fare Since The 1930s
La Rosa's Marketplace
94 Brown St., Hartford
860-296-1909, http://www.larosamarketplace.com
If you live or work in Hartford's South End, you may be familiar with LaRosa's Marketplace, a grocery, deli, luncheonette and catering business near the corner of Franklin Avenue and Brown Street.
I discovered it through a Groupon deal that gave me $20 of spending power for $10, which bought a satisfying lunch for me and a friend.
THE VIBE: At LaRosa's, tables fill the center of the small store, whose walls are lined with deli cases, counters and shelves. Those walls are a warm terra cotta; the floor is green and white tile. The ambience is homey and unpretentious, and so is the food.
THE FOOD: You can eat in or buy takeout, and many customers do both. As its chatty website points out, the business got started in the 1930s, when the current owner's grandfather made sausages using a cast-iron bathtub and converted his garage to a store that sold sausages, olive oil, pasta and grapes. LaRosa's still stocks the basics for a good Italian meal, along with a deli case full of prepared foods and a catering service.
The menu lists many sandwiches, paninis, grinders and wraps, and hot entrées and soups are available Monday through Friday. The daily specials for each week are posted on its website.
We dropped by on a Tuesday, when the specials were lentil soup ($3.50) with vegetables and three entrees at $8.99 each: autumn chicken stew with rice pilaf, stuffed cannelloni with a salad, and a grilled chicken breast with swiss cheese, sautéed onions and mushrooms and a potato/tomato casserole.
I was expecting a soup full of lentils and not much else but instead got a flavorful vegetable broth loaded with potatoes, onion, zucchini, carrots, tomatoes and, yes, lentils. That was a surprise, but a good one.
The cannelloni were two sizable pasta rolls stuffed with sausage, ricotta, spinach and herbs, blanketed with a lively, chunky red sauce. The pasta tasted freshly made, the stuffing was savory, and the generous side salad of romaine lettuce and tomatoes was sparked by a house-made balsamic dressing.
My friend ordered a half-size eggplant grinder — they also come on a smaller roll or full-size — made with breaded eggplant cutlets, cheese and sauce. She liked it but mentioned that after the first few bites, "It didn't get more interesting."
Other soups of the day are chicken, meatball escarole, bean with sausage and spinach, and creamy tomato with basil dumplings. The specials might be veal cacciatore over spaghetti, a roast beef wrap with macaroni salad, orechiette with broccoli rabe and LaRosa's sausage, strip steak with mashed potatoes, hot turkey sandwiches with sausage stuffing and gravy, pork tenderloin on skewers with cannellini, herbs and soppressata or fried flounder with risotto.
The menu lists 23 grinders in three sizes, including a combo of ham, genoa and capicola and a prosciutto caprese. The six grilled paninis are combinations of Italian meats and cheeses moistened with balsamic dressing, olive oil or pesto cream.
Wraps include grilled or Caesar salad chicken, chicken or tuna salad, steak, roast beef, turkey breast and a Cobb wrap with chicken, bacon, egg, blue cheese crumbles, tomatoes, red onion and ranch dressing. There are 11 salads, including Cobb and an antipasto with marinated mushrooms, artichokes, olives and roasted peppers.
THE BILL: Weekday specials are $5.99 to $9.99; grinders range from $5.50 to $17; paninis are $7.50 and $8; wraps are $6.50 to $7.50; salads are $6 to $8.
THE PARTICULARS: LaRosa Marketplace is open Monday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. It is closed on Sunday.
THE VERDICT: Gentle prices, ample portions, a homey atmosphere and tasty food. No wonder LaRosa's is still going strong.
Hartford, CT
ppirrott