More than three months after a fire forced Milano grocery store to close its doors, the Little Italy landmark is set to reopen on Wednesday.
“It was heartbreaking on June 25 when I came here and saw the store, and the upstairs — the second and third floors — were on fire,” recalled co-owner Mario Zaurrini, who took over the family business with his sister in 2011 after their father died.
It took more than 120 firefighters to extinguish the blaze, which apparently was sparked by a smouldering cigarette butt in a flower pot on a second-storey balcony in the rear of the building on St-Laurent Blvd. Seven tenants were left homeless.
The grocery store suffered significant water and smoke damage. Opened in 1954, it is a popular fixture in Little Italy, offering imported and specialty food items for aficionados of authentic Italian fare.
Employee Roberto Santinelli verifies prices two days before the Oct. 5 reopening of Milano grocery store on St-Laurent Blvd.
“I had a hard time sleeping at night, just thinking about what happened to us,” Zaurrini told the Montreal Gazette. “We really didn’t need that.”
The task of gutting and rebuilding the store began almost immediately, he said.
“We had to take everything out. About 50 per cent of the store was torn apart: ceiling, floors, walls. All the equipment had to be taken out. All the stock was thrown away.”
Loyal customers kept in contact via social media, anxiously awaiting the store’s reopening.
“People were really heartbroken,” Zaurrini said. “We just can’t wait to reopen, because we got so much positive feedback on Facebook and in letters that were sent to us. People are happy we’re back in business.”
Milano co-owner Mario Zaurrini, right, attends to last-minute preparations for the store’s reopening with worker Yannick Boissonneault. The family business, founded in 1954, sustained heavy damage in a fire in June.
Zaurrini promises the reborn Milano, which has begun to restock its shelves, will be “bigger, better, stronger.”
He is using the reopening as a kind of reboot.
“It’s a new beginning,” he said. “So we’re introducing some new things that were already in the works before the fire, like fresh-baked goods. We’ll have artisanal bread, fresh pastries and cakes.”
About 80 employees have been retrained and will have to abide by a new dress code — no jeans or running shoes. Zaurrini calls it the “Milano code.”
“My dad’s first store was 15 feet wide, and now we’re going to 225 feet wide. And we’ve gone from 30 employees back then to 75-80 today,” he said.
“It made me and my sister realize what kind of business we have — a really unique business. It’s a landmark, a cornerstone in Montreal. People love our store; they love coming here.
“We hear all sorts of people saying, ‘We don’t just come and shop here … it’s an experience coming here.’ It’s gratifying to hear these things.”
