Andrew Balducci, owner of the Balducci’s food store in New York’s Greenwich Village, died March 22. He was 92.
Balducci, famous for the gourmet store that carries his name at Sixth Ave & Ninth St., was praised by his grandson TJ Murphy, CEO of Bronx-based Baldor Specialty Foods.
“My grandfather was an icon in the food world and an amazing businessman in general,” Murphy said in an e-mail. “I looked up to and learned from him the same way I did my father, Kevin Murphy, who often cited Andy as the person who taught him everything he knew about food; Andy helped shape the way he ran and built Baldor.”
Kevin Murphy of Baldor Specialty Foods died at age 58 in 2013.
TJ Murhpy said his father and grandfather shared a love of good food and brought that passion to their businesses.
“Without Andy Balducci, there would be no Baldor,” TJ Murphy said. “My biggest challenge has been to not only live up to their legacy, but to continue to take risks as they did to keep our businesses growing and relevant in today’s food-centric culture.”
After participating with the U.S. Navy in the invasion of Normandy in World War II, Andy Balducci received a Purple Heart and was hospitalized for six months, according to his obituary.
He was released from the hospital about the time his father Louis Balducci purchased a storefront in Greenwich Village in 1946. Together, they opened a fresh produce business.
The family worked continuously to keep the store open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. After an eight-year stint with his father-in-law’s masonry company, Andy Balducci returned to work with his father at Balducci’s in 1968, according to his obituary. Andy Balducci’s vision was to create a European-style food emporium that offered “the best of the best” across every food category.
Besides produce, Balducci’s imported many Italian specialties and exotic items such as Iranian caviar, French foie gras, and Spanish Serrano ham, according to his obituary. The selections made Balducci’s a destination for celebrities and food lovers in New York, according to the obituary.
Julia della Croce, a New York food journalist, said in an e-mail that Andy Balducci helped to introduced previously unknown vegetables to New York and U.S. consumers.
Cime di rapa, a bitter green grown in southern Italy, was imported to New York and found big demand at Balducci’s deli counter. Now known as broccoli rabe in the U.S., the vegetable’s success at Balducci’s spurred California growers to cultivate the vegetable, della Croce said.
“Andy had old world grit and street smarts, but also, charm and a certain sophistication that enabled him to hobnob with James Beard and all the celebrities of his day who patronized his shop because they found things there that no one else carried,” she said.
The business was sold in 1998.
Balducci is survived by his wife, Nina, two daughters, Marta and Andrea, six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, according to the obituary.
