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Page Contents:
-Fante's History
-Some of Our Friends,
Visitors & Benefactors
-Some Organizations
that We Support
Related Pages:
-9th St Italian Market
 Home
History of Fante's
Thank you for visiting us today.
What we do...
• We specialize in the sale of kitchen utensils for both professional
chefs and home cooks.
• Our Philadelphia store includes a full selection of cookware,
cutlery and many thousands more quality products. On this website, we
narrow the focus to specialized utensils, many of which are not readily
available elsewhere.
• We try to provide you with concise information about all our
products, together with many guides and manuals.
 • We
do our best to always provide good quality, good value, and personal
support even after the sale.
Who we are...
Fante's is a family owned and operated retail business, located in the heart
of Philadelphia's historic Italian Market since 1906.
Luigi and Carmela
with their children
Rose, Teresa, Frank,
Dominic, Josephine
1912
Fante's delivery cart
Little Dominic is
seated in the cart
Fante's storefronts are
next to Monticelli's
1925
Boy Scout Troop 363
Dom - Scoutmaster
Early 1940's
Dominic Fante
in showroom - 1973
Louis Fante
in workshop - 1973
Italian immigrants Luigi L. Fante, Sr. and his father Domenico Fante,
a stone mason, founded Fante's, and their entire extended family was devoted
to the operation of the business.
Luigi led the business after his father's passing. He was known as a dutiful
member of the community, and he was recognized for having fought hard for
human rights for the underprivileged in the neighborhood.
When Luigi passed away, early in the life of the business, it was passed
on to his wife and to their sons Dominic, Frank and Louis. Dominic also
took on his father's role as a very active member of the community.
Together with their sisters Rose, Josephine and Theresa,
and their spouses, they strived to keep their respected business prospering
by constantly varying it to meet the changing demand for products and services.
They made venetian blinds, installed entire kitchens, sold furnishings, imported
china, crystal and other goods from Europe.
During the second World War, when goods for resale were hard to come by,
they purchased distressed goods, repaired and resold them. During this
time, the addition of a plethora of items for the kitchen made Fante's famous
as a popular stop for these goods.
One of the family members, Jeanne Fante, brought back expertise and
tools from France, England and Australia that made Fante's the only place
in the area, and probably in the entire country, where pastry chefs could
readily obtain equipment for decorating cakes. Courses offered in the art
of cake decorating to chefs and restaurateurs became very fashionable.
In
the early 1960's, Fante's mail order catalog contained a wealth of hard
to find goods and was successfully sought after by cooks throughout the
country. Many articles were written about the unusual kitchen goods that
could be found there, and Fante's became a virtual mecca for chefs and
cooks from around the world.
In April 1981, the Fante family retired, and the baton was passed on to
Mariella Giovannucci, then acting General Manager of the store. The families
became acquainted in the mid 1960's, when the Giovannucci's emigrated from
northern Italy to Philadelphia. Dominic Fante, in his customary generous
role, was instrumental in helping the new immigrants adjust to our new
culture, and employed Mariella and her siblings for after-school work.
Under the guidance of the Giovannucci family, Fante's direction became
even more focused on goods for the preparation and service of food.
A renowned Philadelphia tradition, Fante's
is nationally acknowledged as one of the finest in the housewares industry.
Over the years, Fante's continues to receive recognition from countless
newspaper, magazine, and web articles, as well as from food related programs
on television and radio.
Famous chefs and cookbook writers make it a point
to stop at the original Italian Market store when in Philadelphia, and
you'll find Fante's listed as a resource in many of their books.
We are
proud to serve our clients in the Philadelphia area and throughout the
United States.
Also see our history by the Historical
Society of Pennsylvania
Our staff...
 Mariella,
family members and staff welcome you to our store, where we are always happy
to offer you our helpful knowledge and expertise.
Many of
our staff members have been with us more than 25 years, a number have backgrounds
if the field of foodservice.
Although we, like all humans, are not perfect, we know that we couldn't do
without you, so we always do our best to fix our mistakes, and to treat
you with the respect that you and all of us rightly deserve. Really!
Top
Some Organizations that We Support
Please consider adding a small donation of as little
as $1 to your order.
We will forward your donation to thse organizations, which
we are pleased to be able to support: |
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C-CAP
Careers through Culinary Arts Program |
Careers through Culinary Arts Program (C-CAP) works with public
schools across the nation to prepare high school students for
college and career opportunities in the restaurant and hospitality
industry. A national nonprofit, C-CAP provides teacher training,
scholarships, cooking competitions, job shadows, training and
internships, college and career advising, and product and equipment
donations.
www.ccapinc.org
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The
Earth Charter Initiative |
We
recommend that you also visit The Earth Charter Initiative,
whose mission of the Earth Charter Initiative is to promote
the transition to sustainable ways of living and a global society
founded on a shared ethical framework that includes respect
and care for the community of life, ecological integrity, universal
human rights, respect for diversity, economic justice, democracy,
and a culture of peace.
www.earthcharterinaction.org
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