Anthony Scicchitano, owner and president of A&S Fine Foods, first came to the United States in 1937 to join his father in the Pennsylvania coal mines. The 14-year-old Scichitano and his family thought they could make a better living in the United States than in their home of Calabria, Italy, the southernmost province on the peninsula. Besides, Scicchitano says, things were getting "a little shaky" in Europe at that time.

Scicchitano joined his father working in the coal mines but eventually settled in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he married Raffaele Fretta. Fretta's father, Joseph, was an immigrant from Italy who, along with four others, opened Brooklyn's first Italian pork store. Through his father-in-law, Scicchitano learned to make sausage and other Italian pork products.

In 1948, two years after learning the trade, Scicchitano opened his first store in Brooklyn. He initially sold only pork product, but slowly moved into other foods, such as cold cuts and cheeses.

In 1950, he opened his second store, starting a series of expansions that would lead to A&S Fine Foods - formerly A&S Pork Stores - present lineup of 26 stores in the Northeast. Stores are located throughouth the region, including three in Brooklyn, one in Queens, one on Staten Island, three in New Jersey and two in Connecticut.

"Each store makes its own products," Scicchitano says. "Scicchitano, cheeses, sauces, all cooked products, all cold cuts, almost everything is made in the store. We buy very little."