Growing up, Christina Kalcevich always helped out at her family’s food store, the Pasquale Brothers, on King St.

That’s what the 40-year-old Toronto woman’s mother, Anna Marie Kalcevich, and grandmother, Georgina Pasquale Madott, had done before her at the family business established in 1917 by her great-grandparents, Edward and Donna Pasquale, to serve Italian newcomers.

“Not so many companies can live to 100 years. The Eaton’s didn’t. The Simpson’s didn’t,” said Madott, the family’s 90-year-old matriarch. “We have.”

Although the Pasquale specialty food store won’t be celebrating its 100th birthday until next year, it was featured in a recent Toronto Ward Museum event that celebrated the city’s immigrant stories and rich multicultural heritage.

The Pasquale’s story is also among many highlighted in the Picturing the Ward exhibit to be unveiled Thursday at the future Toronto courthouse on Chestnut St. about the unique history of the neighbourhood through the stories of former Ward residents and their descendants.

“We wanted to share Toronto’s immigrant stories through food,” Gracia Dyer Jalea, one of the museum’s co-founders, said of its Dishing Up Toronto program. “The Pasquale is at the intersection between the Ward, food and immigration history.”

The Ward was the neighbourhood in central Toronto bounded by Yonge St. to the east, University Ave. to the west, College St. to the north and Queen St. W. to the south. In the late 19th and early 20th century, the slum was the first home for different waves of newcomers from the Irish to Jewish, Chinese and blacks who settled in the cities.

It was also where Edward Pasquale first settled in Toronto from Abruzzo, Italy, and opened his food store, first at 100 Elm St. and later at 145 Elizabeth St. with a $500 loan from his family.

“Grandmother, Donna Bernardo, came to Toronto aged 4 and she was quite ill on the ocean voyage. Edward Pasquale grew up in a small village in the mountains. He was a shepherd,” said Anna Marie Kalcevich, 66, Edward’s granddaughter, who joined the family business officially the day after she graduated from University of Toronto in 1972 with a degree in geography.

“He would always tell stories about sleeping under a bridge. He had limited schooling and never wore shoes until he came to Canada.”

When the family store was first opened, it was to supply fellow Italian immigrants with familiar foods, from high-quality olives to cheese and meats. Through word of mouth, the business grew and moved to King St. as it began manufacturing its own products.

After consolidating its production line into the well-known Unico brand, the Pasquale family sold it, but kept the family store at 145 King St., next to the St. Lawrence Market, run by Georgina Pasquale and her husband, Henry Madott.

Under the second-generation of Pasquale-Madott, the store became a meeting place for people to mingle and share recipes and cooking tips. In 1981, it moved to 217 King St. before relocating again, in 2003, to its current address at 16 Goodrich Rd. in Etobicoke.

Today, the store sells spices and delicacies, including more than 100 different kinds of cheese. Many of their suppliers are also multi-generational family businesses, such as the makers of Manuel Segura chocolate (6th generation), Bonci cake (3rd generation) and Confetti Pelino candy (established in 1783).

“I don’t want to sound pompous, but you get what you pay for. Men will think nothing of spending $45 or more on a bottle of wine, but hesitate to spend $20 on good-quality olive oil that takes two to three months to use up,” said Anna Marie Kalcevich, the third-generation who took over the family operation in 1979 with her ex-husband.

“For us, this is not a get-rich scheme. Everything is a long haul. It’s not about the costs. It is about our personal services. In Europe, good food is the rights. Here, people think that it’s a privilege to eat well, but it shouldn’t (be).”

Two years ago, when she decided to retire and sell the family business, her daughter, Christina Kalcevich, and her son-in-law, Tony Burt, stepped up and asked to take over the store.

“We’re so close to our 100th year that I couldn’t imagine it out of the family’s hands,” said Christina Kalcevich, who has a master's degree in health science from McGill University and has worked as a researcher at Toronto’s Institute of Work and Health.

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“Growing up, everyone helped out at the store. What makes this so rewarding is the sense of keeping our family traditions going.”

She and her husband officially took over the family business on Nov. 1.

“We came through the war years when lots of Italians were rounded up as enemy aliens. We survived the discrimination against Italian Canadians. I could never imagine that the Pasquale Brothers wouldn’t be strong. It’s just indestructible,” Madott said.

“It doesn’t happen often that a family business lasts for 100 years and I’m pleased that it’s us. I hope we will continue.”