Vinnie Ragonese, 62, left, and his brother John, 57, right, celebrated the 40th anniversary of Ragonese Imports, a store at 409 New Scotland Ave. in Albany that they opened 40 years ago on May 2, 1986 when they were 22 and 17, respectively.
Paul Grondahl / For the Times Union
Throngs of neighbors, customers, well-wishes and elected officials gathered Saturday at Ragonese Imports to celebrate 40 years of selling homemade Italian dishes, deli items and Italian foodstuffs to three generations of customers in the Helderberg neighborhood of Albany.
Paul Grondahl/For the Times Union
Customers purchase Italian specialty foods at Ragonese Imports on the 40th anniversary of the business on Saturday.
Paul Grondahl/For the Times Union
Carmela Ragonese, center, is the 85-year-old matriarch of the family that emigrated from a small, impoverished town in Sicily with three young children in 1970 in search of a better life in Albany. She is surrounded by three generations of her family on the 40th anniversary of Ragonese Imports where she cooked and imparted Old World cooking secrets without written recipes.
Paul Grondahl/For the Times Union
ALBANY — It’s easy to complain about Albany. That’s a lazy person’s sport, like shooting fish in a barrel.
But if you happened to make your way to 409 New Scotland Ave. on Saturday afternoon for the 40th anniversary celebration of Ragonese Imports, you saw Albany at its best.
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Don’t you dare call it Smallbany. Call it O, Albany!
The gathering was joyful, neighborly, authentic, hard-working, loyal, interconnected, resilient and full of history.
A couple hundred neighbors, customers and well-wishers jammed the tent-covered parking lot alongside state, county and local officials, including a past mayor of Albany, Jerry Jennings, and the current office holder, Dorcey Applyrs. Cops grilled hamburgers and hot dogs. There were speeches and stories, along with a wide variety of free food, music, cake and giveaways.
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“I’m not a crier, but this made me cry today,” said Gloria Cabaniss, a customer and friend of the Ragonese family for 15 years. “It’s just a beautiful place where everyone is treated like family.”
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“They’ve created a circle of love,” said Jim Lasky, a longtime customer. “It’s all about family and community.”
“This is a terrific business and the family is even better,” said Chuck Clas, former owner of the family-run Clas Florist that operated for decades across New Scotland Avenue.
“Ragonese has been part of all the milestones of our lives,” said Lisa Haley Thompson, who lives nearby and has been a customer for 35 years. She’s ordered catering meals for a baby shower, baptism, graduation and funeral.
“This is what we love about Albany,” said James Peltz, who lives nearby and walked over to the party with his wife, Ruth Ann Smalley. “It’s an indispensable part of the neighborhood.”
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The origins of this cramped emporium of Italian specialty foods, redolent of tangy tomato sauce and the savory scent of Parmesan cheese, is a classic Albany immigrant story.
Giuseppe and Carmela Ragonese emigrated from the small Sicilian town Castiglione di Sicilia in 1970 with three young children. They came in search of economic opportunity following a lengthy post-World War II recession. They settled in Albany because an aunt lived there and convinced them that the American Dream was within their reach if they worked hard.
The family moved in 1974 from Livingston Avenue to West Erie Street, just off New Scotland, a half-block away from Lombardo’s convenience store. When the Lombardos were ready to retire, they asked the Ragonese family if they wanted to take over the business.
Vincenzo (“Vinnie”) was 22 years old and a union carpenter with Laborers Local 190, like his father. His younger brother, Giovanni (“John”), was 17 and a senior at Albany High School. The brothers decided to take a shot at making a go of the store that offered candy, beer, soda, cigarettes and sundry items.
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They took over on May 2, 1986.
“We said we’d give it a few years and if we couldn’t make it, we’d work as carpenters,” recalled John, who graduated from Albany High in 1986, a month after he became co-owner of Ragonese.
His brother Vinnie got married a month after they opened the store. He lived upstairs with his wife, Lucia, and she helped her husband stock shelves, even when she was eight months pregnant. Their parents pitched in, too, whenever needed, since they lived around the corner.
The two brothers were the entire staff of the store, open seven days a week from 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. They earned no salary for the first three years and invested all profits back into the business to upgrade equipment, shelving and inventory.
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“We had a vision to make it an Italian imports store, but it took us five years to scrape together the money to develop it,” John said, which included phasing out candy, cigarettes and beer and bringing in olive oil, pasta and more.
When they wanted to add homemade Italian classics such as lasagna, chicken parmesan, chicken cacciatore, stuffed shells, baked ziti, spaghetti and meatballs, they drafted their mother, who possessed Old World cooking skills. And she made sublime red sauce.
“She never wrote down the recipe or measured ingredients,” said John, now 57. “She made each dish by memory, eyeing the ingredients and tasting it as she went. We watched and learned.”
“We’ve been so lucky that our parents believed in us at a young age and our wives have been very understanding with the crazy hours,” said Vinnie, now 62, noting that the business has grown each year.
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“I’m very proud of them. They worked day and night and made a beautiful life,” said their mother, Carmela Ragonese, the widowed 85-year-old matriarch. She is the heart of large Sunday family dinners and oversees an annual three-generation family tomato sauce canning marathon.
The brothers are now grandparents and they’re welcoming third-generation customers.
“We’ve grown up together and we know each other’s families,” John said.
“This shows that hard work pays off,” said John’s wife, Lucia, a hairdresser who is on call to work in the store when needed.
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Although Ragonese Imports is open six days a week, the brothers work on Sunday at everything from inventory to cooking if they have a big order for catering, which makes up one-third of the revenue.
The brothers have six children between them. Five have other employment, but help out in the store on weekends or when called upon. John’s son, Michael, 22, works as a full-time cook alongside his father.
“I grew up here. It was my after-school program and my second home,” Michael said. “I feel blessed because how many people can say they get to work alongside their father?”
The son does not have written recipes and rarely measures ingredients or seasonings, working by memory, experience and taste, like his grandmother, whom he calls Nonna.
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John’s son, Giuseppe, 25, works for the state and lives in Slingerlands, but helps out regularly at the store. “Our parents showed us what hard work looks like,” he said. “The biggest lesson is that family is the most important thing.”
After 40 years running the business, the brothers have no plans to retire. And why should they? In Ragonese Imports, they have created una bella vita — a beautiful life.
Paul Grondahl is the Opalka Endowed Director of the New York State Writers Institute at the University at Albany and a former Times Union reporter. He can be reached at grondahlpaul@gmail.com.
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