It’s hard to write anything today without thinking about COVID-19. So many great businesses have been affected by this crisis. It seems like we can either do something, or we can sit back and do nothing. And Louis Rozzo decided to do something.
For over a century, F. Rozzo & Sons – a four-generation family-owned and operated business – was the main supplier of quality seafood for NYC’s top Michelin-starred restaurants. Unfortunately, each and every one of the family’s clientele were affected by the spread of COVID-19 – and many were forced to close their doors.
This tumultuous change in the restaurant industry meant that Louis Rozzo had to change his family’s 120-year-old fish-dealing business model, as well. In just one weekend, Rozzo decided to transition from direct deliveries to NYC’s top chefs, switching to direct sales of his seafood to the public.
Louis Rozzo (ph F. Rozzo & Sons)
So – even if New York’s top dining rooms are closed for the moment, Chelsea residents can still buy the same quality seafood found on the menu at some of the city’s top Michelin-starred venues in “pre-virus” days.
Rozzo has reopened his location in NYC’s Chelsea neighborhood (about 3 blocks north of Chelsea Market), offering the wholesale seafood market experience – buying Hunts Point seafood wholesale like a true chef – to anyone who wants to make fresh fish-based recipes at home, albeit on a much smaller scale.
For Rozzo, the choice to use the family’s original location on 9th Avenue in Chelsea was strategic: He wanted to open his doors to a community – that supported the Rozzo family business over the years – in its time of need during the coronavirus pandemic, offering premium quality seafood at the lowest possible price.
(ph Carnsmedia)
The company’s core values were established back in 1885 when Louis’s great-grandfather Felix Rozzo (the original “F” in F. Rozzo And Sons) left his native Naples for America with the goal of giving his children a better future in the new world through honest hard work and inventive entrepreneurship.
After settling in New York, Felix was immediately intrigued by the hustle and bustle of the Fulton Street Fishmarket, the original Manhattan home of New York’s seafood business.
Felix, who never actually learned to speak English, initially took a job as a ditch-digger – working long hours for a salary of $5 a week. His wife, Nanciadio, found a job filleting fish, earning a handsome $5 a day. Seeing a potential opportunity in the fish market, they teamed up and started trying to buy fish at the market, selling their goods from a cart on the side of the road.
This endeavor proved rather challenging for Louis’s great-grandfather, however; Felix Rozzo only spoke Italian. The first time he tried going to the fish market, he couldn’t find it. The second time, Felix was not even permitted to buy fish. (The market was run by the Irish.) But Felix was not one to give up easily; he finally succeeded when he arrived at the market a third time, accompanied by his brother-in-law – an Italian with a reputation as an established fish merchant. With his brother-in-law’s help and Rozzo’s new official company name – F. Rozzo, Inc. – Felix Rozzo was finally in business.
(ph Carnsmedia)
Every morning before sunrise, Felix would ride his horse-and-buggy to and from the Fulton Fish Market and he would then set up his “store” on the side of the road to sell his freshly purchased fish – all carefully selected, scaled, gutted and filleted before dawn. Working every day, Rozzo dreamed of setting up a small store near Fulton Street. Just a few years later, he was able to open his first brick-and-mortar shop on Mott & Hester Street. Around 1905, he moved F. Rozzo and Sons to 7th Avenue.
“We will never lose sight of the values that have sustained us generation after generation: extraordinary quality, unparalleled service, and steadfast loyalty,” explains Louis Rozzo, President of F. Rozzo & Sons.
Upon Felix’s retirement, his son Louis stepped up to the helm of the family business. F. Rozzo’s new owner possessed uncompromising respect for quality, and he soon became a beloved figure throughout Manhattan – known to his customers for his colorful and engaging personality and strong work ethic – eventually establishing F. Rozzo & Sons as one of the top fish wholesalers in the city.
(ph Carnsmedia)
He sold his first-rate seafood to respected local dining establishments – including the New York Yacht Club – developing a devoted clientele that depended on his good eye for quality, quick hand and reliable nature.
In 1962, Louis’s son, Felix, assumed control of the company. Under Felix’s educated and open-minded direction, the company saw tremendous growth as refinements in transportation and technology led to a boom in the seafood industry and opened up the business to brand-new possibilities.
Felix befriended the great French chefs in the pre-eminent New York French restaurants at the time and he became known as their premier supplier. While continuing to rely on the Fulton Fish Market, Felix also began to take advantage of recent innovations in packaging and transportation. He began supplying New York’s businesses with previously unattainable fish like Dover sole from Belgium and salmon from Norway – increasing the exoticism of restaurant menus and influencing the palates of New Yorkers citywide.
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Louis’s grandfather, Louis Sr., was a “man of the town,” recalls Louis. They called him “Champagne Louie.” He continues: “He turned a rather stinky fish business into a glamorous, upscale (and celebrity-studded) operation. My grandfather hung out with all the celebrity chefs.” He’s not exaggerating, either: Copacabana, Le Cirque Worldwide and food experts the world over have ranked the Rozzi family’s company among the best fish suppliers in the world.
In 1990, Felix handed down the family business to Louis Rozzo, the current President of F. Rozzo & Sons.
As the company embarks on its second century of existence, Louis explains that maintaining the tradition and high standards of his family business is vital. While F. Rozzo & Sons will always embody a willingness to adapt and innovate, they truly have a strong sense of Italian history.
“F. Rozzo & Sons is a slice of old New York in a changing world, and even as our company grows – now shipping fish to five-star restaurants as far afield as Las Vegas and San Juan – we will never lose sight of the values that have sustained us generation after generation: extraordinary quality, unparalleled service, and steadfast loyalty.”
When I asked Louis if anyone in his family refuses to eat seafood, he chuckled and said, “No, that’s not going to fly in my family.”
(ph Carnsmedia)