Calabria Market: Italian Tradition, Intention and Invention
Family tradition doesn’t mean you have to do everything the same way you did in the past. When Caterina and Francesco Foderaro came to Winnipeg with their young family in 1966, it was a departure from all they knew of life in Italy’s Calabria region.
Francesco worked in a Winnipeg factory, cutting pieces for leather jackets. While this kept him busy, he still found time to adapt the ways of the old country to their new environment – gardening, cooking and making homemade wine with their young daughters stomping grapes to extract their juice in the basement of their family home.
The girls were toddlers when the family boarded the Leonardo da Vinci ocean liner to Canada. Now Vicky Sartor and Cathy Wozny are the managing partners of Calabria Market and Fine Wines. Brother Tony is also an integral part of the operation, and Francesco, 82, opens and closes the store every day, firing up the ovens and making deliveries. The sisters admit working with family isn’t always easy. “We’re Italian! We’re passionate! We’ll fight and then a few minutes later I’ll say, ‘Want to go to Winners?’” laughed Vicky.
The market will celebrate 25 years in their Whyte Ridge neighbourhood this October.
They started in a 900 sq. ft. space with shelves stocked with European specialty items and a deli case. The business has grown – and grown up – with their customers and their own children, who grew up and still pitch in at the store.
“We’ve been part of our customer’s kids’ birthday parties, then weddings and baby showers and every 30th, 40th, 50th birthday,” said Cathy.
While individual celebrations are wonderful, supporting the community has been a priority for Calabria. “It’s always been important for us to support and be part of the community,” she said, adding that soccer and school sponsorships and fundraising events remain a focus for the market, including an annual fundraising barbecue on the patio for CancerCare Manitoba.
Their gradual pace of growth has been key, said Vicky. “We didn’t build a big store first and hope customers would show up. If you listen and give people what they want, they will come.”
When their customers asked for pizza, they made pizza – now as many as 200 pizzas a day. Hefty homemade subs and panini are filled with favourites sliced from the deli, with a selection of tapenade, spreads, pickled and roasted vegetables.
The homemade chicken fingers are based on the foundations of the family’s recipe for chicken parmesan, and the made-to-go items, including make-and-take trays of pasta and do-it-yourself pizzas using Calabria dough, sauce, cheese and house-made sausage continue to fly off the shelves, said Cathy. Catering is also an important part of the business.
The biggest leap came when they secured the licensing for wine sales at the market in 1997. Calabria remains one of only two private wine and food stores in the city. It was a big learning curve for the sisters in making presentations, creating the documentation and meeting regulations to obtain the license, but ultimately it created a new opportunity to provide their customers with what they want.
“Our number one goal and the measure of our success it to make people happy through food and wine.”
