L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, JANUARY 21, 2016 www.italoamericano.org 13 L'Italo-Americano I n an industrial area just south of downtown Seattle, under the shadow of CenturyLink Field and down the street from several auto repair shops, sits a small nondescript brick building whose no-frills exterior belies its interior hidden treasures. Known as Big John's PFI, which stands for Pacific Food Importers, the store is a food lover's paradise, a place where old-world charm meets down- home style. The floor is con- crete, the lighting is fluorescent, and handmade signs are every- where —hanging from the ceil- ing, displayed on the walls and posted on columns. The primary décor is provided by hundreds of colorful cans, bottles, jars and packages of specialty imported food items arrayed on old-fash- ioned shelving. Find a shopping cart, or even better, grab one of the recycled 5-gallon plastic buckets previ- ous ly us ed to hold olives in brine. Y ou're now ready to explore Big John's PFI shelf by shelf. Capers to cannellini beans, polenta to almond paste, torrone to flatbread, it's all at your fin- gertips. Shipments come and go, so the inventory changes frequent- ly. What stays constant are the low prices, modest surroundings, knowledgeable staff and unpar- alleled excitement of finding delectable treasures tucked into every nook and cranny. A huge cheese counter, about 25 feet long, holds racks of cheese from Italy and Spain, France and Bulgaria. There are pecorinos and bleus, goudas and bries. Small signs proclaim the country of origin and delineate the special features of select cheeses. "The enormous chees e counter is what they are most famous for," said former caterer Eric DuBois, who has shopped at Big John's for the past 20 years. "The people who work at the cheese counter are real experts. If you were casting about for a special cheese, something with a certain saltiness to it, for exam- ple, they would lead you right to the perfect product." Green and black olives are available in bulk, as are loose spices and herbs. There are hard salamis, olive oils and vinegars, mus tards , jams and honey. Looking for pes to? A t Big John's, you'll find green pesto and red, truffle pesto, lemon pesto and pesto made with pista- chios. Big John's takes its name from its founder and owner, John Croce, who died last year at the age of 91. A pillar of the Seattle Italian-American community, Croce's nickname came not only from his formidable size but also from his bigger-than-life person- ality. Croce started Pacific Food Importers in 1971 as an olive oil import company. As the product line expanded to cured meats, specialty cheeses and a wide range of Mediterranean prod- ucts, so too did its customer base. Soon, PFI was supplying food products w holes ale to restaurants, grocers, manufactur- ers and caterers throughout the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. "The wholesale operation was a working chef's kind of place," said DuBois. "It was not w ell-lit, nothing w as gift- wrapped. But you knew you could get products there you could not get anywhere else at the time." Ten years later, Croce opened a retail-only business as a way for people to "shop the ware- house" without the usual hefty markups associated with import- ed specialty foods. Called Big John's PFI, to differentiate itself from the wholesale operation, the small retail store moved to its current location in 1990. Word s pread quickly that Croce had the bes t M editerranean delicacies in tow n, and s oon people from Italian, Greek and other commu- nities began going to him for their family groceries at a time when imported foods were much harder to come by. The business, RITA CIPALLA Big John's PFI offers Seattle food lovers a cornucopia of imported delights which was turned over to his children in 2012, is now a multi- million-dollar operation. Croce grew up with food- sales in his blood. His parents came to Seattle in 1906 from San Benedetto Del Tronto, a town on Italy's Adriatic coast, and lived in Seattle's Rainier Valley, once known as "garlic gulch" for the proliferation of early Italian immigrants who settled there. In 1946, the Croce family bought the A tlantic S treet G rocery which they owned until 1954, when a highway project put them out of business. Croce was an organic garden- er long before the term was com- mon and he could often be seen at Big John's, handing out gar- dening advice to friends and cus- tomers. He enjoyed making his own wine and won several local aw ards for his homemade Zinfandel. He was also knighted by the Italian Consulate as a "cavaliere" for his service to the Italian Republic. About 500 people attended Croce's funeral s ervice las t August. At the reception that fol- low ed, chees e from P F I w as served, along with pasta and meatballs, Italian sausage and peppers, and 12 gallons of his homemade wine. An accordion player provided the entertain- ment. For a man who loved fam- ily gatherings, good food and lively music, it was an event he surely would have approved of. John Croce, founder of Pacific Food Importers and its retail counterpart, Big John's PFI, was a pillar of Seattle's Italian-American community. Both businesses are well-known for their extensive selection of imported food offe- rings at wholesale prices. (Seattle Times) SEATTLE ITALIAN COMMUNITY Signs denoting country of origin and special taste characteristics decorate select cheeses offered by Big John's PFI, a no-frills specialty food shop in south Seattle

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