A Little Corner Market Grows up to Serve the Greater Community
FOR GENERATIONS OF immigrants who came to work in Southeastern Michigan’s booming industries, the corner market was a lifeline in their new neighborhood, often forging a connection to the home they left behind. It was a place to find familiar foods, sometimes even sold by shopkeepers who spoke their native language.
As it has grown, Cantoro Italian Market retained the best aspects of an old-school corner market and its connections with two locations: Livonia—which espouses the corner market vibe—and a 55,000-square-foot full-service store in Plymouth with a massive kitchen to make its extensive house-made prepared foods and catering menu, plus a trattoria and event spaces, including an underground wine cellar used for private parties.
Although the restaurant has its own dedicated line and staff for cooking, it takes advantage of shared prep ingredients and bases. An example of that is the marinara, or the “mother sauce,” as Chef Matt Gioutsos calls it. Cantoro’s kitchens produce around 600–900 gallons of the standalone sauce that doubles as a base for some of their other sauces each week for use in market items, prepared foods, catered foods and in the trattoria.
Still, the feeling is still 100% neighborhood. On a recent day, a shopper—quite possibly someone’s nonna—felt comfortable stopping Gioutsos, the chef in charge of the market’s prepared food and catering, to ask about the availability of the house-made minestrone.
As a young man, Mario Fallone got a nudge from his mother about buying his first store. The two had come to the United States from Italy when Mario was 10 years old. One day in 1968, when Mario was in his late 20s and working as a Faygo delivery man, his mother noticed a “for sale” sign at a little market in Detroit’s Rosedale Park neighborhood and said it would be a “nice store” for her son to own. He agreed and bought it. In 1974, he relocated the business to Livonia and in 2014 he and his sons, John and Michael, opened the Plymouth store and trattoria. Today, 83-year-old Mario Fallone can be spotted at one of the stores, walking with the aid of a shopping cart on his way to take care of business.
“Italian cooking is usually based on a few simple ingredients.”
—JOHN FALLONE
John Fallone was born the year his dad bought the store. By age 5, he was already hanging around, sweeping the floor, stocking shelves and, as he says, “getting in people’s way.” Now he co-owns the store with his brother, Michael, with John overseeing the grocery side of the business and Michael taking care of the restaurant and wine sales.
John Fallone has a theory why more people than ever before are buying and cooking Italian, while some other once-common ethnic dining specialties have disappeared: “Italian cooking is usually based on a few simple ingredients,” he says. “And, it’s easy to serve with other foods.”
Gioutsos started at Cantoro shortly after the Plymouth location opened, managing the prepared and catered food departments. According to Gioutsos, because Italian dishes usually are based on a few simple ingredients, it follows that to make the best Italian food you need to start with the best ingredients.
Fallone gives an example: “You want to use the best tomatoes. San Marzano tomatoes come from the region of Italy that has volcanic soil. There are other tomatoes that are good, but they don’t have the same sweetness, the same flavor.”
That’s Cantoro’s sweet spot—the best ingredients. Although traditional area supermarkets might have pro sciut to, says Gioutsos, it’s likely to be just one brand in a pre-sliced package. Cantoro features 10 different types of prosciutto, each carrying the regional flavors of the meat, derived from the various foods fed to the pigs and different curing techniques.
Fallone’s sourcing strategy behind the markets is a carefully calibrated mix of buying local and bringing the best of Italy to shoppers here.
Stoney Creek Mushrooms is among the local suppliers Gioutsos is enthused about. Stoney Creek grows hydroponic mushrooms in Grand Rapids and Ferndale. Their mushrooms include the standard varieties as well as more unusual types like Royal Trumpets.
The Fallone brothers travel to Italy at least once a year to search out new products. Past trips have discovered the choices that fill the aisles with sauces, pastas, wines, olive oils and more. John Fallone says the Italian-based food industry is a little ahead of the trends in the United States, so they always return with new finds. Recent discoveries include a gluten-free pasta, from La Fabbrica Pasta, that is made from corn.
“It’s the best I’ve ever had,” says Gioutsos. “Normally, gluten-free pasta is not like normal pasta. It falls apart, has no texture, no flavor. This pasta is like a normal pasta, only gluten-free.”
Another find they couldn’t wait to get into their customers’ hands—and mouths—is a new, imported buffalo mozzarella. Fresh shipments arrive weekly from Italy.
And to finish off the meal, the team at Cantoro is liking a new coffee from Caffè Borbone that they consider to be even better than the popular Lavazza. As is often the case with new products, Caffè Borbone coffee is being served in the trattoria, a step that helps introduce new, unfamiliar items to customers.
Although groceries are the number one sales item at Cantoro, wine sales are a close second and a big part of the business. They stock hundreds of wines from Italy and around the world, from affordable and approachable to rare and expensive.
The team at Cantoro keeps a close eye on the future and what it might bring in terms of cooking and dining trends. Sometimes blips in their sales come from surprising places.
“We didn’t use to sell much guanciale,” says Fallone about the cured Italian pork. “People didn’t know what it was 10 years ago. Now, we can’t keep it in stock because people have seen it on The Food Channel.”
Cantoro Italian Market
19710 Middlebelt Road, Livonia,
248-478-2345; and
15550 N. Haggerty Road, Plymouth,
734-420-1100; CantoroMarket.com
Sharon Morton is a feature and business writer working in Metro Detroit.
