" To Remember and Understand"
Hartford, CT
ppirrott
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!
LaRosa, Giuseppa "Josephine" (Lombardo) Giuseppa "Josephine" (Lombardo) LaRosa, 81, of Rocky Hill and formerly of Hartford, beloved wife of the late Joseph LaRosa, passed away Sunday, (May 27, 2007). She was born May 11, 1926 in Cannicattini Bagni, province of Siracusa, Italy, the daughter of the late Sebastian and Sebastiana (Gibilisco) Lombardo. Josephine was the owner and operator of the LaRosa Products, Inc. in Hartford until her retirement in 1992. She is survived by a son Joseph C. LaRosa and his wife Carol of Castleton, VT; a daughter Tina Bonaquisto and her husband Joseph of Cromwell; four grandchildren; Ragen Carpentieri, Joseph LaRosa and his wife Julia, Mark Bonaquisto and his wife Marisol and Paul Bonaquisto, and a great granddaughter Alyssa Bonaquisto. Funeral services will leave Thursday May 31st at 9 a.m. from the D'Esopo Funeral Chapel, 277 Folly Brook Blvd., Wethersfield for a 10 a.m. Mass of Christian Burial in St. James Church, Rocky Hill. Burial will follow in Rose Hill Memorial Park, Rocky Hill. Calling hours are Wednesday from 4-7 p.m. at the funeral chapel. Josephine's family would like to extend a special thank you to the staff of Middlesex Health Care for their care and compassion. Donations in Josephine's memory may be made to St. Jude's Children's Hospital, P.O. Box 50, Memphis, TN 38101.
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
By CAROLE GOLDBERG, Special to The CourantThe Hartford Courant
April 14, 2011
Hartford, CT
ppirrott