If anyone from the city thinks the West Island as more of a place to pass through, Cassy Teti would like a word.
She’s one of present-day co-owners of Deli La Trattoria (also known as La Tratt), the Italian deli-grocery-pizza operation that's been running out of a strip mall in Kirkland since 2004. Her father Mario opened it with his business partner Enrico Parziale at a time when the area didn't have much in the way of independent food businesses worth talking about.
"There really wasn't anything there," she says. So they built something.
It wasn't an easy start: The space had previously housed another deli that had soured its relationship with the neighbourhood, which meant Mario and Enrico were starting from zero in terms of community trust. The early years required degrees of commitment that extended beyond the menu, like staying open days a week, not taking a personal salary in order to reinvest in the business, and just generally grinding until people started coming back.
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