Abstract
Mark Kotora, Vice President of the Gust Gallucci Co., discusses the company's history and philosophy. An Italian grocery store located in Cleveland's Midtown Corridor, Gallucci's began in 1912 as a fruit vending company. Forced out of the downtown area by Cleveland's Gateway Project, the store moved into Midtown in the mid 1990s. Kotora discusses personal memories while working at Gallucci's, including interacting with customers, and immigrant stories. He also discusses Gallucci's customer base, market strategies, and the rationale for moving into the Midtown area. Other topics include family history, different store locations, growth, popularity, and strategies for continued success.
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Interviewee
Kotora, Mark (interviewee)
Interviewer
Calder, James (interviewer)
Project
Midtown Cleveland
Date
8-8-2007
Document Type
Oral History
Duration
53 minutes
Recommended Citation
"Mark Kotora Interview, 8 August 2007" (2007). Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection. Interview 910013.
https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/crohc000/300
Transcript
James Calder [00:00:18] Okay, so.
Mark Kotora [00:00:21] All right. My name is Mark Kotora, and I am with the Gust Gallucci Company. It was a company that was founded by my great-grandfather in 1912. So I’m currently the only member of the fourth generation of the Gallucci family that is a part of the business. I joined the business full-time upon my graduation from John Carroll University in 1996.
James Calder [00:00:53] Okay. They have, so sort of the founding of the business that was your- Your grandfather founded the business. Where did he come from?
Mark Kotora [00:01:03] My great-grandfather came from a small town in Italy. It was called Faeto. It is still to this day, I guess, a very poor town. And growing up, it’s my understanding - I never had the opportunity to meet him. He died in 1952. But the story’s always went that as a young child growing up in Italy, the streets in Italy or streets in America were paved with gold. And so they really wanted- He really had this strong desire to get out of the poverty situation and come to America. And so that was his goal. He had saved up enough money to come. And he decided, I guess, to send his younger brother first because he wanted him to have a better opportunity than him, you know? I guess he thought of himself as more of the street-smart kind of guy. And could handle things a little better. Somehow. His brother landed in Independence, landed in the Cleveland area. And worked at an inn in Independence. His brother later bought that inn many years later, and it’s still in existence today. And then even later on, became involved with Holiday Inns, and it was very successful on that.
James Calder [00:02:27] What’s the name of it?
Mark Kotora [00:02:28] The inn? I don’t remember, but it is still, I think it’s on 21. It’s still in existence. I’m sure I know someone that could get that for us. So once my great-grandfather saved up enough money to come himself, that’s how he ended up in the Cleveland area, because his brother was already here. He didn’t speak English, and I’m not even sure how well he was able to even write Italian. But I guess he was very good in math. Numbers were always something that he was very good with. But when he came to the United States, he was really only able to communicate with people that spoke Italian. So when he got here, he didn’t really, you know, the streets were not paved in gold like the stories went. And so he was forced to have to survive, I guess. And he did that by selling fruits and vegetables out of a wooden cart, as the story goes. And he could only communicate with Italian people. So that became his primary customer base. And the customers kept talking about how they really longed for products from their homeland. They missed olive oil. They missed all kinds of certain products. So I guess that was what inspired him to open up an Italian store. And that’s sort of how it got its roots and how it started. And I believe he opened up his first store, it was prior to 1912, but he actually became really established in 1912. I believe it was in August of 1912.
James Calder [00:04:17] Where was the first store?
Mark Kotora [00:04:19] The first store, I believe, was located at 424 Woodland Avenue. And in- We had to move from that location. I think it’s pretty much across the street to 505 Woodland Avenue. I think that was somewhere around 1962, ’64. And then we had to relocate to our current location to 6610 Euclid Avenue, in October of ’88 is when that store opened, because we had to make way for the whole Gateway project.
James Calder [00:04:55] Okay, so do you have, I guess, sticking with your great grandfather, do you have any other stories of them just of interest from either the business or anything just around his, his travels either in Italy, to Cleveland?
Mark Kotora [00:05:17] I do know that once he came to America, he never went back to Italy. He had no desire to go back. And he had expressed- My grandfather was born, obviously, here in Cleveland, actually, I believe, at the Cleveland Clinic. He always said that. And that’s why he was very proud of the fact that he had a store on Euclid Avenue, because he was born just down the street, I think, probably about 40 blocks away. So he’d always, his father had always talked to just about how impoverished everything was. And so my grandfather actually never even went to Italy himself because his father always talked about just how wonderful America was and how all the opportunities and how beautiful everything was. So the other stories I’ve heard is he was a very generous, generous man. When people would fall on hard times, he was very good about extending credit. I always heard those stories. I remember going to church as a young boy, and I was probably about seven years old. I didn’t really understand. There was a, I mean, this lady was, seemed like she was extremely old. And I remember her talking with my mother. And when someone said that my mother was a Gallucci. And so my mother introduced me, and the woman even said that she could tell by my forehead or something that I was my, you know, that I looked like my great-grandfather or something. And as a little boy, I guess I thought that was kind of strange but she expressed about her family had fallen on some hard times during the Depression and how my great grandfather was extremely generous in extending credit and accepted other things for payment. You know, they would bake food or sew clothing and such like that. And he would accept that as, you know, to wipe away debt, I guess. So I’ve heard stories like that, but I don’t, you know, I don’t know a tremendous amount about him other than he was- It seemed like when he was sort of always understood, I think, the value of capitalism because he would see opportunities and want to seize on them. I mean, he was sort of ahead of his time on a lot of things, and he sort of saw the value of land. I think in America that’s one of the things that this country is very big, and there’s a lot of open land, and in Europe a lot of it’s occupied, and people live very close to each other and apartments. So he was very much interested in land and land in Cleveland in particular. I guess at one time he owned a large chunk of land that was, I think today is where Tri-C central is at, or main campus, whatever they call it. It’s right down here, 39th or 30th and Woodland.
James Calder [00:08:38] So he owned land in several spots, sort of all over Cleveland?
Mark Kotora [00:08:43] The Woodland Avenue area is he had primarily, I guess, over there. But yes, he did have some on the west side and the east side is my understanding.
James Calder [00:08:54] How did the land get to Tri-C, do you know?
Mark Kotora [00:08:56] It was after his death. I do know that my grandfather, my grandfather died in November of 2004, I think. And, yeah, it was ’04. I remember him telling me stories about how he felt really bad because his mother was a tough woman. And he used to tell my, tell her husband, which was my great-grandfather, you know, you bought what? You bought that land. You’re crazy. What were you thinking? But I guess he just had vision. And so it was upon his death that I guess the land was sold. And they did, you know, I guess they made a nice profit on it. And it was so it allowed my great-grandmother to live comfortably. And my grandfather used to say he felt so bad that his dad took all this abuse for years from his wife about buying this land, and he never got to actually see it pay off. But I do remember hearing that story quite a bit because he said the guy was a visionary.
James Calder [00:10:11] Excellent. Other family- So the family business transitioned from your great-grandfather to your grandfather-
Mark Kotora [00:10:20] In 1952. My great grandfather had four children. He had two sons and two daughters. The daughters were never involved in the business. They both had husbands that were entrepreneurial themselves and had their own businesses and such. So upon my great-grandfather’s death in 1952, his two sons, Ray and Frank, or I should say Frank and Ray, Frank was the older one, and he actually died in November of ’06. He was my grandfather’s older brother, and they sort of carried on the business from then. In 1990, my Uncle Frank, he retired, and then my grandfather- And my grandfather had three children. He had two daughters and a son, and his. That would be my uncle. So my grandfather and my uncle took on the business from 1990 until today, actually. And that transition took place in 1990 when my great Uncle Frank retired.
James Calder [00:11:50] Was there any business sort of change over that period? Obviously, it changed a lot from going to a wooden cart to-
Mark Kotora [00:11:59] It did. Also in 1945, I believe, we bought a business that was in the neighborhood or down the street. It was a wholesale business, and it was called Imperial Foods, and they would supply other stores and restaurants. And I guess my great-grandfather purchased that in 1945. So that’s how we then got into the wholesale business as well. So we both wholesale and retail selling to pizza shops and primarily, you know, white tablecloth restaurants.
James Calder [00:12:29] How did you know? Just kind of thinking about it. How did, if you even know, your grandfather, maybe even your great-grandfather, how did he get the food from sort of Italy to here, especially if there wasn’t a common thing, you know, because you said Italian people wanted sort of their stuff there from back home. How did he even arrange that?
Mark Kotora [00:12:57] You know, I’m not 100% sure. I know there were importers in New York and New Jersey area, and I think by making friends with them, he was able to sort of get stuff, figure out how to get stuff either from them as well as how to arrange to have stuff shipped via sea over here. And I know that wasn’t easy. And I know during World War Two, that became a very difficult thing to do. One is the Italian government was considered an enemy at the time, so it was not easy to get Italian products from Italy. So what happened was a lot of stuff oftentimes would come through Canada, until this day still does. And there’s a lot of Italian companies that actually manufacture products in Canada, different types of salamis and hams and stuff like that. That’s not actually authentic Italian, but it is, you know, the closest thing to it.
James Calder [00:14:11] I guess, other questions about, you know, any other stories about just sort of like growing up Italian in Cleveland, the immigrant experience, I guess? Anything else from either your great-grandfather or your grandfather that you can remember?
Mark Kotora [00:14:29] Hearing my great-grand, my grandfather always told me that, you know, it was his father being an immigrant was what gave him, there were definitely some negative things that came with that. But one of the positive things that came with it was a perspective and his ability to see an opportunity before other people. And I think we’re like that, too. You’re so used to it. You see something every day. You don’t really understand the value of it or what opportunity that is there or the value of the opportunity. And I think from him being an immigrant, he saw that. And he was, I think, also coming from nothing, was willing to take risk. And I think that was something that my great-grandfather had this ability to take risk. And I’ve talked with other people, obviously, in the business that I’m in, a lot of immigrants, I mean, some, and you can just tell they have this, they came from nothing, so they can take a risk. It doesn’t matter, because they can, whatever they’ve achieved, they can do it all over again. You know, they sort of have the recipe for success in their mind. So I think he had an ability to take risk. I think for some people it’s uncomfortable, but when you’re- I think him being an immigrant, it allowed him to, it gave him the ability to see opportunity, and it also gave him the ability to risk, to seize opportunity.
James Calder [00:16:10] Do you think that, one thing we’ve asked about, do you think some of even your great-grandfather’s philosophy, so, you know, sort of run down the business to how is that philosophy kept intact in the business today?
Mark Kotora [00:16:30] Yeah, I do think it is. The business is really interesting. You know, when you’re in our 95th year, and it’s almost like it’s a living being in and of itself. It spans so much time, so it has its own, like, I don’t know whether it’s its own culture, its own feeling, but there’s a couple things, I guess. You know, my great-grandfather, the whole purpose of the business was, I guess, to, well, sure, to make a living. But the opportunity to make the living was to sort of provide these Italian products to people that he could communicate with. So that’s sort of how it started in the raw form. And today, I think one of the things that we do is we provide a lot of these specialty items, not just Italian, but predominantly. And what they allow families to do is sort of keep certain traditions alive or family traditions alive. And so I think that’s sort of something that’s come from the beginning, and it’s still there today.
James Calder [00:17:41] How’s that- How did you keep that philosophy alive in the business just through the generations?
Mark Kotora [00:17:51] I think my great-grandfather was a strong personality and he definitely had an influence on all of his children and I think specifically his two sons. He worked side by side them for quite a long time. And so even though I never met my great-grandfather, somehow, I don’t know, just growing up, I started working in a store in the summers when I was twelve. And, you know, I just remember hearing a lot of stories, so it’s almost as if I never met my great-grandfather but at the same time, in some strange way, this was his way and this was, you know, it just became ingrained. It just became a part of what we did. But I remember one time we opened up this store, we always open up the store the Sunday before Christmas and it’s the only Sunday that we’re open. And I remember I was probably 19, 20, I think I was probably somewhere around there. And I went to my grandfather and I told him because there was obviously things I’d rather be doing. I mean, we worked like dogs during that time. You know, you had to stay late and stock shelves and clean up. And I just remember thinking, you know, geez, we’ve worked like 18 days in a row and the store’s not very busy. And I just remember telling my grandfather, you know, this isn’t even worth it. You know, we’re not going to make any money today. We’ll be lucky to break even. And his response was, you know, it’s not always about that. You got to remember, you know, we’re here to provide a service as well. And he laughed. He goes, because, you know, I said the same thing to my father one time and he said, that’s when he told me, hey, you know, don’t be greedy, you know, you gotta, we’re here to provide a service. And so being open that Sunday before Christmas gave people an opportunity to come in and get stuff so it would be fresher for their holidays and holiday meals and also to sort of beat some of the rush and allowed them to go shopping at other places. So it really worked for the people that came in on Sunday it was something that worked really well for them. So I guess that sort of trickled down. And to this, you know, to this day, it’s, you know, I just always know that we’re open that Sunday because we, you know, that’s a service that we provide.
James Calder [00:20:35] Do you think that sort of attitude has helped where, you know, a lot of businesses, family-run businesses from that era, things like that haven’t survived or they’ve left the family. How do you think Gallucci’s has been different?
Mark Kotora [00:20:55] You know, it is something you hear about oftentimes generation, I think it’s the third generation businesses that once they get into the third generation, they don’t last. And it’s something that we are aware of, and it’s something that’s why we’re always trying to, you know, develop new ideas and things to keep our business thriving. I’ve thought about that, you know, myself, because, and I think I’m just, I’m very proud to be a part of this business. And it’s, but, you know, sometimes you want to stand on the outside looking in because you want to try to always not be what they say in the box. You want to think outside the box. So I have thought about that, and I think that we, our longevity has been very important to us. And one of the things is, and it goes back to, I guess, providing, you know, the products for people’s traditions, because I almost think that Gallucci’s is part of people’s family traditions. And at certain times, I noticed after 9/11, people sometimes were so- I always think of, I’m all over the place, and I apologize, but I’ll try to get it all back and wrap it together. I always think of things, you know, as a kid, time seemed, was like a metronome. You think of things in terms of a metronome, you know, and things were ticking much slower when we were kids. You know, we didn’t have cell phones and this instant communication and, you know, used to have to- So things just moved on a much slower pace. And as time goes on and technology increases and increases, the metronome just keeps ticking faster and faster and faster. And then sometimes we sort of overlook things that should be very important to us, like our spending time with the family and our security, our safety. And I noticed after 9/11 a big change in people’s attitudes. It was, you know, that first Christmas after that, it was like people, I saw people coming in and really pointing out the fact that their little children, whether it’s their little children, sometimes their grandchildren, and they would talk about how they would used to come here with their grandma and grandpa every year for Christmas, or they come here for Easter and before Easter. And they used to get all this stuff, and they used to pick olives out of the barrels. There used to be big - in our old store at 424, there’s a lot of pictures that we have - and there were these big barrels with olives, and it’s so common to hear that story of parents and grandparents telling their children and grandchildren how they used to go and sneak olives from these barrels. And so I think that this strong association with Gallucci’s and this sense of family, family traditions and this being really good, happy times, you know, the very sentimental and the longevity of Gallucci’s and its spanning three, four, and even five generations of families that have sort of made Gallucci’s a part of their family traditions. I think that is what has really helped us continue to do well and to survive in this sort of very big corporate world right now.
James Calder [00:24:48] How does that affect with primarily ethnic foods? How is the effect of people sort of moving away from the city, especially Italian immigrants, for one thing, they’ve sort of made it in a way and moved out to the suburbs. How does the location still right on Euclid, how does that make sense?
Mark Kotora [00:25:13] Sort of, you know, you could, I wasn’t always sure that it made sense. From my perspective- I grew up in Solon, so I think that when, you know, growing up maybe led a little bit of a sheltered life. And when I started working in, when I was twelve, it was quite a shock to me. Things were very different. You know, growing up, everybody, you just saw everybody sort of, everybody went to, they graduated high school. Most of them would go on to college. You know, people had like savings accounts and bank accounts and. Yeah, so I understand what you’re saying. It was a real shock to me. So I never really understood it at the time. But one of the things that I think, you know, my, my great, my grandfather and his brother and, I mean, they were definitely very, very dedicated to the city of Cleveland. And they, when it came time, when Gateway came in and we had to move, we had a lot of opportunities to move outside of Cleveland and into the suburbs, but they were very, they were just hard set on staying in Cleveland. So now I look at it and I think, I can’t imagine, I mean, Gallucci’s of Cleveland, I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s just synonymous. I can’t imagine any other way. And so having a location that people can draw from these sort of, these pockets of Italians, I guess, that have moved both east and west was important and that sort of played a role in where we actually landed today. Gallucci’s is a destination. So that kind of helps. I mean, it’s not like we have to rely on foot traffic or people just driving by and things like with the advent of the Food Network and the constant, I guess, medical, medical world has really promoted the Mediterranean diet. These things have definitely played right into our hands. So not only has it, we’ve always had sort of an Italian customer base, but now that base has really expanded. I mean, I would say that, you know, the average, you know, most, not, not all of our customers or there’s a good percentage that are not necessarily Italian or have Italian ethnicity.
James Calder [00:28:05] Do you think that almost helps you stand out, too? Because I was just like, I used to drive down Euclid to go to school or anything, and you see it and it almost says stand out. There’s like this Italian thing off of Euclid kind of, and Prospect, and it does sort of stand out. And it’s almost not a bad thing. Like, I definitely remember it.
Mark Kotora [00:28:26] Right. Exactly. I’ll run into, I mean, I’ll be places and they’ll be like, you know, Gallucci, that Gallucci’s, because I’ll see my shirt on. I’ll usually run somewhere after work and they’ll be like, yeah, I used to remember going there as a kid. You know, I was, you guys are, you guys are down near the Cleveland Clinic, aren’t you? It’s like I hadn’t been there. I haven’t been there in years. But I was driving, you know, I had to take a family member to the Clinic or went to visit somebody. And, yeah, I drove by. So it does stick out. And I guess in a way, it’s, sometimes I feel really bad when, you know, a lot of people come around when, or rediscover us for the first time. People that are not native Clevelanders or didn’t grow up in Ohio, they sort of discover us the first time by going to either the Clinic for themselves or someone else. So it’s never really a good thing. And sometimes it kind of, but it’s true. It does stick out.
James Calder [00:29:30] One thing you talked about is that sort of moving into sort of the new changes and stuff, what changes have there been sort of recently, even with, from technology to just, you know, now you carry some other ethnic foods. You know, what’s brought about those changes and sort of where those changes been?
Mark Kotora [00:29:51] Well, I think we keep talking about Gallucci’s as an Italian store. We do carry a lot of Hungarian products as, as well. We do have a, there’s a very dense, I guess, Cleveland and Chicago, I guess, have some of the largest populations of Hungarians next to, like, Budapest. I mean, it’s so, you know, we, again, my great-grandfather, I guess, saw that, and my grandfather and his brother definitely saw the opportunities for carrying Hungarian items, and we do carry quite a bit. And our Hungarian customers are some of the nicest people in the world. They tend to smile a lot, and they’re just very appreciative of the fact that you have their products. I wish all the customers were like that, but that just isn’t the case. I think, you know, we, one of the things that’s happened to Cleveland and Ohio probably in general, is people are moving out. And so we would oftentimes people would come in, well, during Thanksgiving, you would think that that wouldn’t necessarily, or right after the Friday after Thanksgiving, you wouldn’t think people would be coming to buy food. But we found out, or what we have found over the years is people come in to visit their families for Thanksgiving. And Gallucci’s is very unique. And I guess in the areas where people have moved out into other states, they don’t have ethnic stores like ours, and so they want to come to Gallucci’s when they come back to Cleveland, when they come back home. So seeing that, that meant that there’s a definite market for selling products outside of Ohio. And so with technology, with the Internet, we opened up an online store. So I would say that’d be one of the changes that we’ve made over the years, utilizing technology in that direction. Some of the other things that we’ve done is originally we were just sort of a store and, you know, and also, you know, a wholesale and retail operation. And with the ever-expanding Cleveland Clinic and University Circle, there wasn’t a lot of places for those people to go to lunch. And so that’s how we started doing sort of, sort of sandwiches, really, on a small scale. And that sort of blossomed into today. I mean, you know, a good section of the store is set aside for, you know, whether it’s prepared foods and our sandwiches, pizza, and we do a tremendous amount of catering as well. So that’s sort of a transition that we’ve made as well.
James Calder [00:33:04] You had mentioned some of working at Gallucci’s when you were, like, twelve earlier. What are some of your personal stories there? Getting involved with the business, but even just personal sort of work stories or even stories of the neighborhood at the time, Cleveland in general?
Mark Kotora [00:33:23] Well, when I started, we were on Woodland Avenue, and that was a building that we had moved, 505 Woodland. That was a building that we had. We’re at third base at Jacobs Field is where it was. So, you know, I do remember that I was really, that building had character. It was five floors. It had an old like freight elevator. And before we had it, it was a dairy. And I just remember seeing, you know, the building just seemed to have such history. I just remember pulling stock on the floors, different levels, and getting things ready to bring down into the store. And it just seemed to me so interesting. It was like, I wish I could have rewound time a little bit to just see what was going on in that building before, because you’d see signs sometimes from the dairy that were still hanging behind doors and stuff that was kind of neat. And I just. I remember when we moved, or we were forced to move, I was really sad. And, you know, at the time, the Indian, I loved the Indians, but, you know, they weren’t. They weren’t a very good team. And I was thinking, you know, what a waste that we have to do this. And my grandfather never saw it that way. I don’t know if maybe just the positive side was, you know, we’re going to have a nice, fresh store, you know, new refrigeration, new, you know, new. He always says, he had a saying, new is new, Jack. And so I think he saw that opportunity, and I just didn’t see it the same way because I felt like, you know, this building that had all this character was going to be knocked down. So from a personal perspective, I felt really, really sad. And then I remember the very first, it was an exhibition game at the Jake in ’94. I think it was like the day before Easter. It was a Saturday afternoon. And I just remember sitting there, of course, on the third base side, where our home was, and just looking around, and it was so beautiful. And I just. That sadness left, and there was pride, I guess, that, you know, I was very proud of Cleveland at that moment. It was just- Until this day, I think Jacobs Field has still got so much class. And so I think the move was very good for us in the end, and I think it was very good for the city of Cleveland. And I, you know, even now we’ve, on Friday nights at the Jake, they’ve been having fireworks and stuff. So I had gone down with some friends and went to a game this summer, and it was just- It was a beautiful Friday night, and it was gorgeous. And I just remember, I thought back to when, you know, my grandfather used to pick me up in the morning and we’d pull up to the old store, and I was like, you, you know, things have changed quite a bit, and they definitely changed for the better. This is absolutely beautiful down here, and Cleveland is such a great city. I just wish people outside of Ohio could really understand just what a wonderful thing we have going here. So that’s sort of a, I guess, a childhood story of just, you know, the transition. As far as working, I’ve come in contact with so many wonderful people that would be, I think, growing up, I’ve learned a tremendous amount from my customers. To hear stories of them coming over on ships and the seasickness they should have probably written movies. They were able to somehow just really illustrate with their words just how brutal that trip was. And then, you know, some of them weren’t always treated the best when they got here, you know, whether they were quarantined and sort of were coming here for this. But in the end, they all say it worked out, and this is the greatest country in the world. So I’ve been very blessed, I guess, with that opportunity to communicate with so many people from so many different walks of life, so many different, you know, nationalities as well. It’s really interesting.
James Calder [00:37:51] So are the people that you meet sort of, are these sort of immigrants from your great grandfather’s time, younger immigrants, or just a mix of everything?
Mark Kotora [00:38:07] There’s a mix of everything. Well, for example, you know, I was, you know, the radio on in the morning in the store have it on [102.1], and on Saturday mornings, they’ve got. It’s like a gardening hour or something with Angelo Petitti. Angelo Petitti. I mean, he’s not all that old. He’s probably maybe 60ish. He was an immigrant from my great grandfather’s hometown, and Angelo had come to my great, I’m sorry, my grandfather’s funeral. And I just remember him talking to me about how when he first came to America, he didn’t speak English very well, and he was able to communicate. And their dialect from Faeto, though, which is the town that my great grandfather came from, it’s a very strange dialect. Even some Italians can’t understand it. I think they were invaded by the French quite a bit throughout history. And so it has a very French sort of sound to it. And so he had a hard time communicating. And it was just so interesting. I just thought about this on Saturday. I’m listening to him on the radio, and he barely has any accent, and things have really changed. And he said that my Uncle Frank and great uncle Frank and my grandfather were so good to him that he really doesn’t feel he would be where he’s at today without them giving them the opportunities. So that was. And then I do have a story about that. As a kid, my parents were having some landscaping done. My grandfather had sent Angelo over, and I guess when he first started in business, and they were having some shrubs installed, and these guys didn’t speak any English, and, of course, I didn’t speak any Italian. My mother spoke a little bit, and my brother and his friend, I have an older brother, and they were making a project for school, this papier-mâché project. And in Italian families, it’s very common. You invite people in and you feed ’em. So here these guys were just working, and so the mom kind of invited ’em in and made some iced tea for them. And they’re watching my brother and his friend put this papier-mâché, build this papier-mâché thing. And you hear these guys, like, no, no, no. And they’re going through the kitchen cabinets looking for the flour, and they’re mixing the papier-mâché, changing it, and here they are. They’re like. And they’re making this thing for ’em. It was, it was just really interesting. And so, you know, I look back at that moment, it was very funny, and it was very fond time, fond memory, and it was sort of without Gallucci’s and bringing these immigrants and everything together, and it wouldn’t have happened. So it was just kind of a neat story that I actually just reminisced about on Saturday morning. But to answer your question, no, we have immigrants. You know, you’ll find people in their twenties to, you know, customers that, you know, are nearly centenarians. So it’s sort of all over, and not just necessarily from Italy, either. I think people are used to, you know, I guess, you know, it’s more of an ethnic market. It’s probably more what they’re, they’re familiar with. And that’s why they, you know, get people from all over.
James Calder [00:41:55] Excellent. I wanted to switch gears just a little bit, unless you have something else to add on that sort of topic.
Mark Kotora [00:42:03] If I answered your question.
James Calder [00:42:04] Oh, yeah, it’s great. Just about. I guess I kind of wanted to sort of can things off with just the connection with Midtown, this neighborhood. How is- Well, I guess just the neighborhood in general, how has this neighborhood been? Is it a place to move to, and how has it changed?
Mark Kotora [00:42:24] You know, in the beginning, I, you know, I mean, everyone wants to be politically correct, and the neighborhood was, it was awful in the beginning, and I questioned why, you know, my grandfather and his brother were so dead silent set on moving where they did. And I had an opportunity to- I remember certain things. I had an opportunity to talk with my cousin, who’s a chiropractor Dr. Gust Gallucci, and who was involved in the business as well until 1990, when his dad retired. He used to come in and work a couple days a week, and I asked him, you know, what did they talk about at that time? And one of the big things is I always, I think they had a great deal of respect for, you know, guys like Rockefeller. And Euclid Avenue was, in their mind, that was [Millionaires Row]. And to have a Euclid Avenue address was something I think that in their mind was. I mean, that was a very prestigious thing. Even though the neighborhood certainly it was no longer [Millionaires Row]. The neighborhood was in, you want to. It was in decay. It was blighted. But to them, they just never saw it that way. They kept, my grandfather said he was born on Euclid Avenue, literally several blocks down the street. And somehow it just felt, I think everything felt right. It felt like home to them. I mean, Gallucci’s, for the Gallucci family, that is our home away from home. We do spend so much time there. So in the beginning, you know, like I said, me having grown up in the suburbs and looking at it, I just was like, grandpa’s losing it, you know? But he always kept saying, are you kidding me? No. This area is going to be, this area is going to be where it’s at. The Cleveland Clinic is going to keep growing. It’s what he always said. He always used to say, there’s never going to be a shortage of people that need healthcare base or medical attention. And having had some medical issues and saw how wonderful the Cleveland Clinic was, and also at that time, we heard a lot about the princes and stuff coming from Saudi Arabia. So he knew the Clinic was going to expand. And I think the Cleveland Clinic has been very instrumental in really helping the city of Cleveland in many different ways. So I think that move, the commitment to stay in Cleveland, we needed to have a building that we could do retail from. We needed to have a spot we could do retail from and wholesale. So we had to be close to freeways. And the opportunity to have a Euclid Avenue address on [Millionaires Row] was, I guess, the ideal place for Gallucci’s. And I do believe personally, and I certainly don’t want to sound arrogant or pompous in any way, I think we have been very instrumental in helping that area to revitalize. I think we were one of the, definitely one of the first. And I think it was a necessary sort of a catalyst to inspire others to join in the Midtown. And the move, I think, has been a very good move for us. I think it’s been, and like I said, it’s been a great move for the city of Cleveland. And I think it’s been good for Midtown. Again, we said my great-grandfather came here because the streets were paved in gold. I would think ultimately he would agree that they’re paved in gold. And the gold was the opportunity that this country presented, as well as the city of Cleveland. And so I always think of, when I talk about it, said the streets were paved in gold. [Millionaires Row] and us being on Euclid Avenue, and it just all seems to. To really fit really well. Just feels right.
James Calder [00:46:46] Excellent. Do you have anything? Okay, how about the, like, you know, Midtown Cleveland Incorporated? What has Gallucci’s connection with that been?
Mark Kotora [00:47:03] Everybody’s been, you know, very good to Gallucci’s, I would say, always trying to get us to be involved, asking for our input. The other thing is always coming to us and informing us as to what is going on. And with this whole construction, this project with RTA, this is something that construction right in front of your building and your business is never very good, and it’s not good for business, I should say, at least in the short term. And Midtown was very influential and very, they worked very hard to, I guess, be a liaison with RTA and us to get, you know, basically to help make this construction project not so painful for us. And they’ve been very good about doing that. There were so many things to take into consideration, but always letting us know what was going on and where the construction was going to be and when they were going to be getting to us and trying to make sure that schedules for construction in front of our building didn’t take place during our busy time, like at Christmas. And so I would say our relationship with Midtown has been very good. And the communication is very, very good.
James Calder [00:48:37] Have you seen them play sort of like a big part in sort of the neighborhood revitalizing?
Mark Kotora [00:48:46] Well, absolutely. And I remember several years ago, they had this, I don’t know what they called it. It was like a party in the park, and we had some music and food and right there on, I think it’s between Prospect and Carnegie. And I remember going there and thinking, wow, it was so pretty. And just a few years ago, that was nothing like that. These trees that they had planted and it sort of grown up a little bit after a couple years. And I think they’ve just been very instrumental in taking this small segment of the city and really helping to not only beautify it, but bring business here.
James Calder [00:49:32] I was also going to ask about the Euclid Corridor Project, I guess, too. Obviously, that construction is painful in a way. I think it is to everyone, and I can’t imagine actually having a business there. The positives, you know, one thing that they talk about a lot, the people from the RTA, is that they’ll sort of reopen that corridor between University Circle and I guess you could say the Clinic as much as anything and then downtown. Do you see that as something that’s realistic? And if so, you know, something that would be a help to your business?
Mark Kotora [00:50:13] I’m not sure how many customers are going to be coming into the store and shopping for grocery products that would be on a bus, basically. I think it could definitely help our lunch and our lunch business, our takeout business. One of the things that- The way, I guess I see it, if nothing else, there’s been a lot of infrastructure that’s needed to be- Euclid Avenue was, I think, the first street in the world to have a stoplight, if I’m not mistaken. That’s what I think I was always told. And so obviously it’s an old street. It’s had electricity on it probably longer than a lot. And with that meant we had a lot of infrastructure, water, sewers, electric, that needed to be updated. And if nothing, the way I look at it is, if nothing else, we have definitely done that as a result of this project. Without this project, that probably wouldn’t have been done, certainly not as efficiently or expeditiously. The other thing is, it is between Midtown and RTA, they’ve purchased a lot of property and have definitely knocked down a lot of decaying buildings and really done a lot to beautify it. And it looks absolutely gorgeous in the areas that they are done. And I’m looking forward to them being done in front of our building. And I think it will definitely help to improve the visual aspect of the area. As far as bringing customers to me, I’m not really sure just how much it is going to bring. I guess, you know, that’s, time will tell on that. Do I think the project is worth it? Absolutely. I think there’s- There’s- To judge it just based on the logistical movement of people from one area to another, I think isn’t fair to the project because they’ve done so much more than that. Like I said, between updating infrastructure and beautification, you know, you have to include those as well, from my perspective.
James Calder [00:52:38] Excellent. Well, I don’t really have too much more to ask. Is there anything you want to add?
Mark Kotora [00:52:43] I think the one thing that I would like to add is that there is such a sense of pride, I know, with myself and with other family members that people make Gallucci’s or allow Gallucci’s to be a part of their family traditions, of their holiday times. And there is just such a sense of pride that comes along with that. And we just are very thankful for that.
James Calder [00:53:10] Excellent.
Mark Kotora [00:53:13] So did I do all right?
James Calder [00:53:14] Oh, yeah, that was excellent.
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