“They would come in to see my dad and ask him if he could get something and he would drive down to Toronto and scour the places and eventually bring it in.

“It developed from that — bringing in unique imported products, that was always the staple.”

Tony remembers making the same trip when he was just 17 after a customer came into the store looking for brie. He got in the car and drove around Toronto meeting with suppliers to see if he could help find what was then a speciality food. Now brie can be found on most grocery store shelves.

“We didn’t have the Internet back then, we relied on the yellow pages,” said Tony. “I drove around trying to dig up different cheese suppliers. That was kind of how things evolved and we evolved with it.”

But the quality of the products they brought in also made a difference, and it was the quality that continued to help grow the store when they moved into their current location seven years ago from their Belmont Village store.

“People’s tastes have changed a lot from the travelling they do now,” said Tony. “We’re fortunate that like some of the other ethnic food stores that didn’t transition to the other customers out there, we have, and I say it’s because we give the customers what they want.

“If people ask for something we give it a shot and try to bring it in.”

“Now we have customers come in here with some obscure recipe and we try to find the stuff to keep up the demands of our customers,” said Carmine. “Our customers have always lead us that way.”

Their famous sandwich bar and hot lunches is also something that have become a staple with customers. It started with construction workers coming into the original store for a little fresh bread and salami for lunch to a hot lunch counter that delivers up some of the delicacies they have on their shelves.

“When I look at our lunch crowd and what we’ve created I’m amazed, and many places have replicated that and I take that as a compliment,” said Carmine. “The way I look at it is they are customers in training.

“High school kids, university kids come in here and that’s how they get welcomed into the store. They’ll start exploring in the cheese counter, and see about the other pop ups that we have, and once they started cooking for themselves they come back to find that unique ingredient.”

It comes back to those customers, both original and new who have become just like extended members of the Caccioppoli family. That’s where the idea came of taking photos of their customers.

“What are we celebrating?” said Carmine. “When you really look at it, it’s a celebration of our customers.

“I’ve got a bunch of pictures of customers who have been with us since 1967, but I also have the ones who have come here in recent years. That interaction is what we’re all about.”

For more about Vincenzo’s, visit www.vincenzosonline.com.