HomePublicationBurbankTony’s Market Closes Doors After 70 Years

Tony’s Market Closes Doors After 70 Years

First published in the March 19 print issue of the Burbank Leader.

At first, only the pictures remained. Then, one by one, those went away too.

It was impossible to miss the photographs in Tony’s Market. Dominic Manente, the longtime owner of the deli, loved to display pictures of his regulars there. He always remembered their names, and would point to photos as he told stories about his patrons.

When some of them came to the deli after Manente’s death on Feb. 14, his brother Sabatino said in a recent interview, they wept. And then they asked for their picture, their piece of Tony’s Market.

“Some people grew up generations through here,” Sabatino Manente said. “Grandparents, parents and kids.”

Tony’s Market closed for good after Dominic Manente’s death at the age of 75. He had run the deli since May 15, 1986, Sabatino Manente said. But the deli, opened around 1950, was older; Dominic Manente used the same produce refrigerator and sausage-making equipment as the original owner, Tony Paolone.

Like much of the market, the equipment was aged but functional. Dominic Manente was a traditionalist in many ways, collecting old photos of the deli and using family recipes from generations ago. He bought the Glenoaks Boulevard business after a number of other owners, including Paolone and his son. Customers called him Tony, a name passed down through previous owners.

Debbie Buzzelli-Blount, Paolone’s granddaughter, said Dominic Manente was committed to keeping the deli’s feel and look. When she visited him about five years ago, it was the only part of the neighborhood she felt had stayed the same.

“I felt like I was walking into the past,” Buzzelli-Blount said.

FROM ITALY TO BURBANK

Photo by Christian Leonard / Burbank Leader | Sabatino Manente, younger brother of Tony’s Market owner Dominic Manente, stands in the deli after Dominic’s death in February. The siblings cooked tri-tip steaks together on Saturdays outside the business and invited community members to eat. Now, Sabatino Manente is preparing the deli for renovations.

It was perhaps natural for Tony’s Deli to transition to Dominic Manente’s hands. His father owned the building and the apartment above it, where the family of six lived in a two-bedroom unit after moving to Burbank in 1963. His parents emigrated from the same Italian town as the Paolones — Gagliano Aterno — and the two families lived and worked close to each other.

A large painting of the town remained propped up on a top shelf in Tony’s Market as Sabatino Manente made his way through the cramped aisles last month, making arrangements for the perishable goods to be sold or donated. His brother, who attended Bellarmine-Jefferson High School in Burbank, would often take naps in a sofa chair under the painting, during which the younger Manente would watch after the deli.

Dominic Manente worked 10- to 12-hour days at the shop, six days a week, his brother said, with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin singing from a CD player as the man greeted customers. On Saturdays, the brothers would barbecue tri-tip in the parking lot and invite their friends.

“He came off as sometimes [a] grouch, but he had a heart of gold,” Sabatino Manente said, adding that during the early months of the pandemic, Dominic Manente worked to find his customers products they struggled to find at supermarkets. “He always was willing to help people. … He wanted to be part of the community.”

That desire extended to his interactions with his workers. Pierce Wong, who worked for Manente in 2018 while a student at Woodbury University, said even when he “[worked] the heck out of you,” he treated his employees like family.

“[What] made him different from other bosses was that he actually cared what you had to say,” Wong added. “You really felt like he was someone who cared.”

Photo by Christian Leonard / Burbank Leader | Dominic Manente’s last apron hangs on a meat closet door in Tony’s Market. His brother Sabatino Manente said he will retire the deli’s name out of respect for Dominic’s legacy.

TONY’S DEPARTS

Manente also took an interest in the lives of Wong and his fellow workers — who sometimes call themselves “Tony’s Market alumni.” Wong, who said Manente was like an uncle to him, explained that he’d often offer advice to his workers and, on slow days, would watch classic movies with them. After Wong convinced a couple of his friends to start working at the deli, they bought him a “Woodbury dad” shirt.

Wong said his former boss was also generous, buying products he didn’t want to support vendors. Colleen Young, who worked for Manente from 2005 to 2007 while she was a Burbank High School student, said he’d often give her free steaks to take home.

“He was so kind, generous and patient,” Young told the Leader, “even with a bunch of teenagers being hooligans behind the counter.”

Dominic Manente no longer stands behind the deli counter, greeting customers to the “world-famous Tony’s Market.” What remained were the pictures, each bearing the face of a customer whose name Manente had committed to memory.

Tony’s Market itself won’t stay, said Sabatino Manente, who owns the building. He hopes that another Italian deli will move into the space, but it needs major renovations first. Besides, he doesn’t want someone else riding on his brother’s coattails — or tarnishing his legacy. Sabatino Manente has spent much of his time since his brother’s death selling or donating the shop’s stock and helping care for his brother’s wife of 50 years, Rita, and his daughter Gina.

Photo by Christian Leonard / Burbank Leader | Sabatino Manente takes a phone call while standing behind the counter at Tony’s Market, which his brother Dominic ran for more than 35 years. Dominic Manente was known for taking photos of his regular patrons and displaying them around the deli.

He also played another role: waiting at the deli to let in visitors to collect their photographs. They were staples of Tony’s Market, but they were also symbols of customers’ attachment to the place and its owner.

There was a knock at the market’s door as Sabatino Manente paced through the deli, treading the floors he and his brother had walked for decades. Another longtime customer had come to pick up his picture — his piece of Tony’s Market.

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