CLEARFIELD – There’s a new market downtown, and people in Clearfield and the surrounding areas have been beating a path to the door.
Santinoceto’s Italian Market opened just about two months ago, and owner Nick Santinoceto said he’s happy with the response and is looking forward to serving customers for years to come.
Members of the Santinoceto family are no strangers to Clearfield and the family’s market is nothing new.
In 1931 his grandparents, Joseph and Mary, opened a market in East End. Joseph died in 1959, but his wife kept the market going until 1984.
Nick Santinoceto was practically raised in the store, and you could say it got into his blood.
His background is in computers and after school he moved away and stayed away for 21 years, returning home in 2002 to work at Clearfield Hospital.
Meanwhile, he was making sausage and meatballs, using his family’s special, secret recipe, for family and friends.
And, they would tell him he needed to open a store, and idea that got in the back of his mind and stayed there.
And when he was laid off in January of 2015, he thought there just might be enough of a demand for an Italian market to make a go of it.
The location is the former Medicine Shoppe store at 304 N. Third St. On Aug. 15 construction began to renovate the building using local contractors and engineers.
“I was very careful, very particular. I didn’t want to cut corners,” Nick Santinoceto said.
He is especially grateful to general contractor Jim Fox and electrician John Lowman for all of their hard work in getting everything done.
And when the doors finally opened, the response was overwhelming. Not only did the community respond, but his family was thrilled, with family members coming from across the United States for the grand opening.
“I felt it was something I really wanted to do,” Nick Santinoceto said, “I could have gone elsewhere for work, but I wanted to stay home.”
The market deals in the best of Italian food. The sausage and meatballs are made on site, utilizing the secret family recipe, and everything else is quality foods from Pittsburgh, including pastas, sauces, deli meats, cheeses, etc.
“It’s like going to an Italian market in the strip district of Pittsburgh!” Nick Santinoceto promised. “My sausage and meatballs…well, you have to be the judge.” Especially popular, he mentioned, have been the ravioli and tortellini.
The market has been very well accepted with the first four weeks beyond expectation. Things slowed down a bit for the next four weeks, but the market is still doing well, he said.
The market is open five days a week. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, the hours are 10 a.m. To 6 p.m. On Friday the hours are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and on Saturday it is open 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The sausage and meatballs are made fresh at the beginning of the week, and Santinoceto has help with that.
He recently taught friend, Betina Nicklas, how to make the meatballs. Overall, the store has eight part-time workers, including Forrest Campman and Jody Vezza, whom he says he has relied heavily on, and Vickie Bunnell, his “right hand person.” “She’s fantastic!”
And, of course, he said more are made throughout the week as well, nearly every other day.
Nick Santinoceto has some ideas for the future. He is looking at what needs to be done to become a wholesale foods market, which requires paperwork with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He’s also looking to do some expansion for coolers and so on, adding that he loves the location he’s at.
He is especially pleased with the reception Clearfield has given him and hopes to continue for years to come.