San Marco Ravioli Food Products: A Bloomfield Success Story

The next time you’re shopping at a local Shop-Rite or dining at a local Italian eatery, the product you’re purchasing or the food you’re eating may very well have come from a dream started by Eugenio and Immacolata Siciliano.

“It is,” says their son, Paul Siciliano, owner and manager of frozen pasta manufacturer San Marco Ravioli Food Products, originally located in the extreme southern end of Bloomfield bordering Belleville and north Newark, now off of Belleville Avenue, “a real Horatio Alger story. My parents came here from Italy when I was 5. “

Eugenio arrived a year earlier than his family, in 1968. “Talk about fate sometimes,” says Sicilano. “My dad has a 6^thgrade education, but he worked at age 12 as a diesel mechanic, and then came here and started as a mechanic at MSLA Landfill in Kearny – worked his way up to foreman.” The landfill; eventually closed, and Eugenio started an excavating business while Immacolata worked at Angelo’s Catering in Bloomfield. Then in 1983, she told her husband she’d learned enough to do something similar on their own.

“At that time, my mom and the wife of my dad’s partner in the excavating business started the business on Bloomfield Avenue. It was tough when they started off with no customers or accounts. He still worked the excavating job as well during the day; he had a family to support.” The San Marco name came courtesy of Eugenio’s first partner, who came from San Marco, Italy.

“In the early days,” recalls Eugenio, “we made pasta and cavatelli one at a time. We opened a little store. I worked seven days a week; my wife worked six days a week.”

Eventually, a decision had to be made to concentrate on just one of the businesses. San Marco it was. Ironically enough, at the end of the 1980s, the construction industry bottomed out, so the choice was a good one. “My dad said, ‘People always have to eat,” says Paul.

Eventually, business growth for wholesale and a drop in walk in sales precipitated a move to a bigger location, so the Sicilianos moved from the original 3,500 foot location to their current of 15,000 square feet in 2001. Currently, San Marco foods offers some walk-in, but are remodeling their current location and will offer more fresh products to walk-in customers come mid-summer.

“It’s simplicity,” says Paul Sicilaino of Italin cuisine.

“We create everything ourselves,” claims Eugenio proudly. “It’s quality. The way we cook, prepare. We have the best food.”

‘We’re still like a Mom and Pop operation,” says Paul of San Marco Ravioli Food Products, that makes 175 wholesale deliveries a week catering halls, supermarkets, and popular eateries like Calabria in Livingston, Forte’s and Luce in Caldwell, and Cosimo’s in Bloomfield. Those are homerun hitters in the eatery business. San Marco  now also offers gluten-free products.

“The equation is steadfast,” says Paul Siciliano. “The rule is hard work pays off. The adage never gets old.” Then, he sums it all up. “I’m so proud to be an American. I would not have what I have if my dad didn’t make a decision to bring us here.”

, 38 Davey Street, Bloomfield, (973) 748-4545