Pellicano's Marketplace looks to add 'extremely unique experience' with future expansion

Article and photo by Benjamin Joe

Senior contributing writer

Pellicano’s Marketplace sits at 3338 Niagara Falls Blvd., and has since 2020, after moving from its original location because of a lack of space.

These days, the specialty grocery store is facing the same challenge. With an eye on giving the customer the ultimate experience, Chris Pellicano, manager of the store, said 20,000 square feet will be added to the store to give more space for shoppers, as well as more space for equipment, so employees can better serve customer needs – and “finally a bakery and a café.”

“The biggest thing is more space for the customers to shop,” he said. “But also, spaces for the staff. We want to make it more efficient for them to work. Give them some more equipment. They don’t work inefficiently, but just by giving them some more equipment, it would make their job a little easier. More slicers, specialized ovens, fryers, special pasta cookers.”

According to Pellicano, the expansion will also come with hours good for 50 full-time jobs.

Pellicano said parking will be expanded, perhaps doubled from the 70 existing parking spaces. On top of that, a small storage building may also be erected to house specialty items imported from Italy.

Pellicano said he wants to bring foods directly from Italy and announced the shop has already started to sell Tuscan olive oil imported from a farm in Tuscany. Pellicano’s will also sell pasta flour from the importer, which will also be utilized to make pasta right inside the marketplace.

“(It’ll be) the closest thing to getting pasta from Italy. The only thing is, and it would be funny if we did, is if we imported Italian water,” Pellicano joked.

Other in-house foods will be fresh bread from the bakery for an expanded choice of bread in addition to all the other brands the store carries; as well as sandwiches, which will taste like the customer went to Rome and ordered one from a local shop. A café for espresso and perhaps gelato is in the works, too.

While it is hard to project when the remodel for the store will be complete, Pellicano said it could be done by spring of 2027.

In addition to what’s been mentioned here, the makeover is hoped to include a space for musicians to play, and workshops on how to make a variety of dishes – including how to make pasta right from flour to dough to strands of spaghetti and spiraled rigatoni.

“We would love to have a little space so we can have some musicians, one or two, three-piece band, playing in the store while people are shopping. Offer an extremely unique experience,” Pellicano said. “We want to be able to offer classes. We want to teach people. ‘This is how you make pasta from scratch. This is how you can your own olives. This is how you make your own wine.’ ”

Currently, the design for the addition is being prepared by Trautman Associates and will be in front of the Town of Wheatfield Planning Board at a future meeting.