"I remember vividly, very regular customers, this couple... they were like, 'Oh, Mauro, when you're older, you're going to run this place.' And I leaned over and I said, 'If I'm still here when I'm 20, you shoot me in the head.' I never, never, never wanted that as a kid."
But absence makes the heart grow fonder: Fast forward to 2025, and Mauro Petraccone is marking his 40th year connected to his NDG institution Pasta Casareccia—first as an 11-year-old kid schlepping garbage on the weekends, then as a manager who swore he'd escape, and now as the sole owner who can't imagine being anywhere else.

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