07/08/2024
Ted Olynyk photo...
Tosi Italian Foods
Angelo Tosi - 91 - eating an orange in front of his store at 624 Main Street. Still in the same location since it was opened by his father in 1906. Don’t be shy — press the buzzer. You will be let into a living piece of Vancouver history.
I remember going there with my mom. I’m sure we all have those memories as a kid, of certain stories. The room was enormous, and the overwhelming aroma of food and spices is something I can never forget.
(Angelo says, cash only!)
Sent this to my Italian Vancouver born friend and she wrote this eloquent piece, I just had to share it!! :
I remember this place when I was a little kid and my father took me there. It had very, very high ceilings, just like being in a cathedral to Parmesan--hahaha! In the window were displayed huge wheels of Parmesan and other Italian cheeses, whole salami's, whole legs of prosciutto, all kinds of olives and olive oil, etc.
The smell inside the store was wonderful--a mixture of Parmesan, little branches of very strong oregano tied together like a dried bouquet, espresso coffee beans, anchovies out of huge barrels, freshly-made ravioli and capelletti, many kinds of baked goods, especially traditional ones, like Christmas Panettone and the Easter Colomba (peace dove), sweet-smelling sugared almonds for baptisms and weddings, and tiny, rich amaretto cookies (made of powdered almonds and sugar--a divine smell!).
Plus shelves upon shelves of every imaginable shape of pasta, canned tomatoes from Italy for the best pasta sauce ever, fresh chestnuts and figs in winter, grapes and thick grape juice for the wine makers in fall--and so much more!
When there were almost no other Italian grocery stores in the whole of Vancouver at the time, this store was the lifeline for all the Italian immigrants! It was a sort of informal "community centre" for Italians to hang out in, where they could buy outdated magazines and newspapers from Italy, catch up on the local Italian news and get to speak their language with one another.
Over many years it slowly went down but the front window display was still there for many years, long past the time when it was actually a living store. I wondered why they kept it there for such a long time. It was more of a museum than a store and I think Mr. Tosi lived upstairs and kept it because it pleased him--to hell with City Hall! I guess he was the only person who knew why!
Down the street on Main, closer to Hastings Street, was another place, a rustic Italian restaurant where people could get delicious Italian food for a reasonable price. I wish I could remember the name. During the Depression, the owner would never turn away a hungry person who was down on his luck. He would always make them a heaping plate of pasta with plenty of grated Parmesan on it! That poor soul would leave with a full belly and a welcoming place to come to when they were hungry and had no money to pay.
People were extremely loyal to these places because of the kinds of people the owners were and how crucial these businesses were to Italians, especially when they first came to Canada. It was a little piece of home to them, in the midst of a strange, new world!
I wonder what happened to all these vital little businesses, when they closed and why??
