My Brother, the Co-Owner

Sal Garofalo in the basement with Cesar, an employee, who prepares chicken for a catering job.
PHOTO: Shoshana Kordova
Sal Garofalo was 11 and his brother Domenico was 5 when they left Italy for New York with their family in 1971. When they opened Milano Market in February – the sixth store they have started and the third one currently in business – they were following in a family tradition. The Garofalos’ father and uncle owned Italian delis just like the ones the two brothers now own and run.

Thirty years since the Garofalos immigrated to the United States, the business has grown, but it has not changed all that much. "It is such a rewarding thrill to put all of your money into a business and watch it actually work out," says Sal, who lives in Staten Island. "I have yet to fail at this," he says. "You have to believe that it will be successful or you have already lost."

Milano Market, between West 112th and West 113th streets, may be one in a line of successes, but it is the only store the Garofalos own that has a basement dedicated to food preparation and not just storage.

Sal goes down to the basement "all the time," from when he opens the store at 6 a.m. until he leaves at about 4 p.m. Domenico, known as "Dominic," commutes from Brooklyn to relieve his brother and stays until the store closes at 1 a.m.. He estimates that he goes between the basement and the ground floor about 30 times a day, partly to check up on the basement workers. "They just fool around a little bit more down there," he says.

The two other stores the brothers own are run by their nephews, giving all the businesses what Dominic calls the "family touch." This way, "if someone wants to talk to us, we’re always here."

Dominic, now 34, has been in the business since he was 16, and he has yet to tire of it. "I love the energy, the adrenaline," he says. "The pulse of New York is incredible. Once you get it inside of you, it’s really hard to get out."