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Laurenzo’s Closes: "Took Me Right Back to My Mother's Table"
Once upon a time, the neighborhood grocery store was the heartbeat of the community. It was the place to bump into neighbors while picking up ground beef for meatloaf and scan the lost pet notices on the bulletin board. You could count on finding Girl Scout cookies there every year.
Today, your groceries may come from a big-box superstore that looks the same whether it’s in Kendall or Kansas City. Maybe you just avoid the market altogether by using Instacart or Amazon Fresh.
Laurenzo’s Italian Market and Café in North Miami Beach, one of those neighborhood stores. is closing its doors on July 31 after 69 years.
The family-owned business has long served as a culinary hub for classic Italian foods – pasta, breads and pastries, fish and meats, cheese and wine – but also specialty items, like Russian and Eastern European products, depending on the tastes of an ever-changing community.
“We’ve always had other foods – Spanish, Middle Eastern, Asian, Mexican,” says David Laurenzo, one of three siblings who run the business started by their late father, Ben. As the neighborhood market, Laurenzo's was known for fulfilling long-standing requests from customers – muscadine grapes for those who made their own wine – and stocking holiday foods for the many cultures and religions that make up South Florida's diverse population.
Outpouring of Memories
The news of their closing, delivered in a simple notice taped to the door earlier in the month, set phones ringing and social media posts on fire, with shoppers taking selfies in the aisles, accompanied by crying-face emoji. “Customers were calling from all over the country, sharing stories – memories, family stories, kids,” Laurenzo says. “It’s been like Christmas week in the store.”
Photo 1: Salumi and prosciutti
Photo 2: Laurenzo and a bottle of Barolo
Recollections of food, friends and family are among the most indelible. The neighborhood market is the setting where so many memories are preserved.
“I just remember going to Laurenzo's with my parents on either Saturday or Sunday, once or twice a month,” says John Medina, who grew up in North Miami. “I remember an old Italian lady who used to work at the cafeteria in the middle of the store during the lunch period. She would ask you, ‘Whaddya want?’ I would either ask for a slice of pizza or some kind of pasta dish … she would size you up, and me being a big boy, would give me a hearty plate of food.”
For Coconut Grove resident Greg Levy, Laurenzo's hosted their Sunday Italian feasts. “We would start with chicken parm heroes from their cafeteria for lunch, then get supplies for a homemade pizza course around 3pm. This was all to be topped it off with a salad and fresh pasta in a homemade Bolognese sauce for dinner.”
A Wedding Cake to Remember
Aurelio Sica grew up in Brooklyn and moved to West Kendall in the 1970s. Even though it meant a one-hour drive with the family, Laurenzo’s was the only place to go for Italian foods and wines. “We would make it a day, eating in the dining area, buying Italian pastries, and a case of wine.
When we had guests, we got cannolis, cream desserts that you can’t find anywhere else.” If the red, white and green linoleum floors look the same as they did in 1973, it didn’t matter, says Sica. The Italian cheeses, fresh pasta and condiments made it worthwhile. “Took me right back to my mother’s table.”
Laurenzo’s famous rum cream cake was served at their wedding, and it was also the dessert of choice for Aurelio’s surprise 70th birthday party, says his wife, Nancy. “So delicious! No one can do it the way Laurenzo’s did.”
Chefs and passionate home cooks looked to Laurenzo’s for their supplies. “It’s always sad to lose a pioneer in the business,” says chef Justin Flit, formerly of Proof Pasta and Pizza, and now working on the upcoming Navé in Coconut Grove. “I would buy pasta flour, semolina, assorted cheeses, mostly pasta stuff.”
"Very Strong Identity"
The first time Melanie Stewart walked into Laurenzo’s, she remembers smelling that enticing “potpourri of oregano, paper bags, linoleum.” Three years later, she ended up working behind the deli counter.
“I was proud to work there,” she says. “It was like being one of the kids in the family. I never laughed more at a job than there.”
Working at Laurenzo’s, Stewart, a chef whose heritage is also Italian, learned plenty about cheeses, wines and other foods, like Lapsang souchong tea.
Photo 1: Alex, Mel and the late Daisy, a beloved cashier (Photo: Melanie Stewart)
Photo 2: Jose, Mel and Rudy behind the deli counter (Photo: Melanie Stewart)
“David loved getting stuff nobody else had,” she says. “He’d find olive oil from a tiny town of 100 people. The wine department was extraordinary. They had wines I’ve never seen, like a New Zealand red blend by Matariki called Quintology.”
The holidays brought out all the best, she says. “There was all kinds of Italian stuff, panettone and torrone, condiments, mostarda.”
Along the way, Stewart got to know the customers and their stories – who had babies, who was sick, whatever was happening in their lives, the kind of community news that finds its home at a neighborhood market like Laurenzo's.
“Laurenzo’s never wavered from who they were,” says Stewart. “They had a very strong identity."
A Void in the Marketplace
“I don’t know where I’m going to get my veal scaloppine now,” says Groveite Pat Mackin, who’s been buying the cut from Laurenzo’s butchers since she first learned to make the dish.Groveite She remembers going to Laurenzo’s as a child with her mother and her Italian-born neighbor before I-95 was built, a long drive from her Coral Gables home.
While the main building is closing, not all is lost. The farmers market across the parking lot will stay open, stocking produce and seasonal specialties, like prune plums and chestnuts. But real estate development is a powerful force in South Florida, leaving little room for old-school specialty markets. Laurenzo’s joins Epicure, Gardner's and Scotty's Grocery in the Grove, to name a few South Florida groceries that are no longer around.
For David Laurenzo and siblings Carol and Robert, closing means retirement – welcome, but different.
“It’s a new 180-degree lifestyle,” David says. “But I get a little emotional when I think of my father, who was up at 4:30am, working at 89. None of us will be doing that here.”
LAURENZO'S FARMERS MARKET
16445 W Dixie Hwy, North Miami Beach
The North Miami Beach farmers market across the street will stay open, selling conventional and organic produce.
I Mercati
Stock up on everything from Italian canned tuna to precious carafes of traditional aceto balsamico at these markets,...
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