DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna give it to you straight with a little love on top. Back in 1882, a man by the name of Fraschio Fossati, though most folks knew him as Frank, stepped off whatever road had carried him from Italy and opened a delicatessen right there in Victoria, Texas, at the corner of Juan Linn and Main streets. Now Frank Fossati, born in 1852 and still going strong all the way to 1939, was not a man who thought small.
He ran that first shop, and then in 1895 he went and had an entirely new building constructed, moved the whole operation to this very site, and apparently decided that was where it was going to stay. And stay it did. The building itself is one of the oldest remaining commercial structures in Victoria, and it has the look of something that knows it.
Double front doors. Multi-light transoms. The kind of place that says come in without saying a word.
Over the years, Fossati's has handled imported foods, groceries, feed, all manner of things a town needs, and it has served as an important gathering place for Victoria's citizens. That right there is the quiet part of the story, and maybe the biggest part. A man comes over from Italy, puts up a building, and somewhere along the way the building stops being just a store and starts being a place where a community comes to itself.
Frank Fossati, 1852 to 1939, built something that outlasted just about everything else on the block. Victoria's still got it.
What the marker says
In 1882, Italian immigrant Fraschio ("Frank") N. Fossati (1852-1939) opened his first delicatesssen in Victoria at Juan Linn and Main streets. He had this building constructed in 1895 and moved the business to this site. One of the oldest remaining commercial structures in Victoria, it features double front doors with multi-light transoms. Over the years, Fossati's has handled imported foods, groceries, and feed and has served as an important gathering place for Victoria's citizens. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1987