Sad News: Vincenzo Masellis, founder of Vincenzo’s Supermarket, 1928–2013

I learned yesterday about the death of Vincenzo Masellis, the owner of Vincenzo's Supermarket. He died on Saturday. He was 85. Vincenzo came to Toronto from Bari in Puglia with his brothers in 1949. He and his brothers worked at factory and construction jobs. They pooled their savings and opened Masellis Supermarket near Danforth and Donlands in 1958. All the Masellis brothers had growing families. In 1964, Vincenzo and his wife Saveria decided to open a supermarket of their own further east at Danforth and Westlake. Vincenzo's Supermarket opened for business on September 17, 1964. Three generations of the family have worked in the store with Vincenzo and Saveria over the last 49 years. Vincenzo's flourished as a full-service supermarket and prospered after Food City opened a store across the street. It was one of many Italian markets on the Danforth. The markets were a distinctive part of the neighbourhood commerce when we moved here 33 years ago.Unfortunately, we did not discover Vincenzo's until relatively recently, mainly because there were other Italian markets—Loconte, Prince of Wales, Vito's, Michael's and Monte's—closer to us. Today, only Michael's survives as the Plank Road Market. We don't get to Vincenzo's as often as we would like to. The last time I talked with Vincenzo was about a month ago. I bought some of the fine sausage (chicken and pork) that he was famous for. We will miss him.