Iavarone Brothers maintains family tradition

Richard Jacques

In 1919, Pasquale Iavarone stepped off a boat from Italy onto Ellis Island, one of thousands of Italian immigrants who came to this country to make a new life during the first two decades of this century.

Eight years later, he opened his own pork store in Brooklyn, producing Italian sausage that drew so many customers at holiday time, police barricades were erected around it to control the crowds.

With his old world work ethic, he had established a family business and tradition that remains alive today at the Iavarone Brothers location at the Lake Success Mall in New Hyde Park, one of four stores the family runs in Nassau County and Queens.

Jonathan Iavarone, 28, one of Pasquale’s great grandsons, takes pride in managing the store that is part of his forebears’ legacy.

“It’s nice working with my family. Everybody gets along,” he said.

Joseph and Jerry Iavarone, Pasquale’s sons, followed their father into the business and kept the original location going until 1958 before relocating to another store in the borough. In 1971, John and Joseph, Jr., the family patriarch’s grandsons opened a store in Maspeth, Queens.

Like many Italians who’d settled in Brooklyn, the Iavarone family followed the migration path of their kinsmen east on Long Island, subsequently opening stores in Wantagh and Woodbury, adding the New Hyde Park location in 1991.

Today, Jonathan Iavarone is one of four members of his family’s generation to be in the business, along with his brother Christopher and his cousins Michelle and Michael.

There was a large concentration of Italian-Americans in the area with a keen appetite for the large variety of Italian sausages and cheeses, olive oil, caponata, bread and other delicasies Iavarone Brothers built its reputation on when the New Hyde Park store opened.

But the demographics of the area have changed over time, and the flavor of the business has changed with the times, according to Jonathan Iavarone.

These days, the store offers a full selection of fresh fruits and vegetables, in addition to the fresh baked goods it started producing on the site 10 years ago. American Kobe steaks are included along with the Italian sausages sold in its meat department.

“The neighborhood changed a little,” Iavarone said. “We used to be a little more Italian. We call ourselves an international market now.”

Iavarone Brothers’ Lake Success store also expanded into the catering business 15 years ago.

Today, the internet has helped transform the business into a national one that ships its goods around the country based on orders made through its Web site (www.IBFoods.com).

“I have one customer in North Carolina who buys 20 pounds of sausage every year before Christmas,” Iavarone said. “We have a lot of relocated customers for sure.”

But as the business has been transformed, the standards Pasquale Iavarone strived to set for his Brooklyn pork store in 1927 still inform the Iavarone Brothers objective in terms of service and quality, according to Iavarone.

“We strive for quality. And customer service is a major thing,” he said, adding that employees in his store make an effort to take time to consult with customers to meet their needs.

On a given Sunday, it can become challenging to maneuver through the aisles in the New Hyde Park store. And as Iavarone Brothers keeps growing customers, Iavarone said it is contemplating a future expansion of its location in the Lake Success Mall.

Share this Article