Traverso's sale ends 89 years of family management

Traverso's Gourmet Foods, which survived though four generations by focusing on old-fashioned service and hand-selected Italian delicacies even as the city around it changed, is being sold by the family who founded the Santa Rosa market nearly 90 years ago.

Longtime customers, many of whom had been visiting Traverso's since they were children, were stunned by Wednesday's announcement.

"It's heartbreaking," said Susan Nelson of Santa Rosa, who came in around noon to buy a prosciutto sandwich. "They've been like family to us. They're like family to everyone in Santa Rosa."

The Fountaingrove store and its inventory are being acquired by a San Rafael couple who plan to re-open with a similar theme but a different name, owner George Traverso said.

"It's very emotional. It's really a sad thing," Traverso said. "I love what I'm doing, but it's just a point where I have to be realistic."

The sale is expected to be completed before Thanksgiving, he said. Traverso's five current employees will not work at the new store, he said.

The identity of the buyers and financial terms of the sale were not disclosed.

Diminished consumer spending during the recession and increased competition from chain stores contributed to the family's decision to sell, Traverso said. The price of rent and fuel were also factors, he said. Also, Traverso started working at the store when he was 14, and at 65, he's ready to retire.

"People are not spending as much," Traverso said. "We're in a luxury type of market style, and unlike Safeway and Lucky's and so forth, we specialize. And there's so many now that have the same things that we do."

The gourmet food and wine store opened in Santa Rosa near Railroad Square in 1922, moved downtown in 1973 and relocated to its Fountaingrove location in 2009.

Son Michael Traverso, 38, said his first memory of the store was the smell of salami, and standing next to his grandfather at the big meat slicer when he was 4 years old.

"It's sad. But for us it's kind of bittersweet," said Michael Traverso, who hopes to find work in the wine industry. "The opportunity came for someone to come in and take over what we made here."

The store drew a loyal following by offering items not easily found at chain groceries. Rare imported cheeses like brigante and fieore sardo, made from sheep's milk, share the counter with more recognizable asiago and brie.

"It's a tragedy," said customer George Franco, 65, a doctor from Santa Rosa. "I had friends in from Italy, and even they're impressed with what you can get here."

Although it changed locations, the store remained a beloved institution for many Santa Rosa shoppers.

"I was born here, and I remember my parents dragging me into the store on A Street, when I was this high," said customer Bill Pisenti Jr., 63, a salesman at Men's Warehouse. "They would give me a piece of salami."

Customer Clairette Wilson, 62, of Tomales, said she stops in at Traverso's to buy saffron for risotto about once a month when she's getting her hair done nearby.

"It will always be Traverso's to me, but without George it's not going to be the same," Wilson said. "He is always kind...he's always helpful in the old-time, gentlemanly way."

Historic photos of the family line the store's walls.

"My ancestors, they're looking down on us," George Traverso said. "My Uncle Louis, he always said, &‘There's a beginning and there's an end.' Life goes on, we're all mortal."