La Famiglia owner Ralph Hagy looks to further expand his Huntington family with the opening of Mulberry Street Meatball Co. & Deli.
By Rebecca Stephens
HQ 88 | WINTER 2015
As a young boy growing up in Williamson, West Virginia, Ralph Hagy used to push a chair to the stove to stand on while he watched his mother cook. From her, he learned the centuries-old techniques for cooking “Cucina Calabrese,” or “Calabrian cuisine,” and for the past three years he, his wife, Terri, their sons, Joseph and Jordan, and their staff at La Famiglia have been serving up some of Calabria’s most traditional recipes.
Now, they’re putting a spin on La Famiglia’s savory dishes to offer quick service to Huntington’s downtown lunch crowd with the opening of Mulberry Street Meatball Co. & Deli.
“We knew there was a need for our customers to come in and buy fresh deli meats and cheeses, but we saw that the two needed to be separated,” Hagy says.
Mulberry Street Meatball Co. & Deli is the original vision Hagy had in mind when opening La Famiglia, but the customer base quickly pushed it from being a deli to a sit-down restaurant with a full menu offering wood-fired pizzas, house-made pastas, salads, seasonal specials and more.
Though the restaurant business was not Hagy’s first career, he has had a passion for food since childhood.
“Food was always a center point in the family,” Hagy says. “Everything happened around the dinner table. That’s when we talked. That’s how we knew what was going on.”
After retiring from the chemical mining industry, Hagy started catering with his sons. Before long, plans for a restaurant were underway.
Hagy decided Huntington would be the perfect location as he, his wife and their sons are Marshall University graduates, and despite living in Williamson, the Hagys frequently traveled to Huntington for Marshall football games and other university events.
As La Famiglia quickly became a reality, Hagy knew he had to set the restaurant apart from the other pizza places and Italian dining options in the area by providing customers with an experience similar to what they might find in New York, Boston or Philadelphia.
“It’s authentic,” Hagy says. “The heart of our business is our wood-fired pizza oven. We stick to Napoletana style pizzas. We import our flour from Naples, Italy. We import our San Marzano tomatoes, which are grown on Pompeii around Mt. Vesuvius. Now, we make our own pasta.”
Debra Tourigny, senior vice president at USI Insurance Agency, says she makes it a point to dine at La Famiglia at least once a week. In fact, it was La Famiglia’s wood-fired pizzas that inspired her and her husband, Barry, to put a wood-fired oven in their home.
“The first experience I had there was on my birthday,” Tourigny says. “It was a beautiful Italian spread and just the best time ever.”
Also establishing La Famiglia apart from other eateries in the area is its location on Sixth Avenue in one of the city’s old Victorian-style homes, settled away from the hustle and bustle of downtown but within walking distance of Marshall’s campus.
A big part of La Famiglia’s charm are the photos of Hagy’s family stretching back through the generations that adorn the walls of the restaurant, and it becomes easy to see where La Famiglia got its name.
“Family means so much,” Hagy says. “Family means everything.”
Of his wife and sons, Hagy says they make the decisions for the restaurant together and just about everything they do is a culinary experience.
“It’s about keeping family together and that’s something I think is really important,” he says.
In the few short years since La Famiglia opened on Oct. 3, 2011, many changes have been made to accommodate the growing business, including the construction of the patio, renovating the upstairs for more seating, adding a full bar and hosting private parties and wedding receptions.
“The restaurant business is always a work in progress,” Hagy says.
With La Famiglia well established, Hagy and his crew turned their attention back to opening a deli, and after a year of planning and construction, Mulberry Street Meatball Co. & Deli opened Oct. 15 in the former location of The Peanut Shoppe, operating from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday. Once the deli closes for the day, dinner opens at La Famiglia from 5 p.m. until close Tuesday through Saturday.
Customers of La Famiglia can expect the same quality foods at Mulberry Street Meatball Co. & Deli, but modified for the city’s downtown lunch crowd, offering patrons specially crafted sandwiches, fresh-baked bread, imported meats and cheeses and more.
Of the name, Hagy says La Famiglia’s meatballs are called “Mulberry Street Meatballs.” Though it is a subtle nod to Mulberry Street in New York City’s Little Italy, it is mostly because Hagy grew up on Mulberry Street in Williamson.
“That was where my mom taught me to make meatballs, and people recognize the name Mulberry Street,” he says.
Of the meatball itself, Hagy says he wants to offer beef, pork, lamb and even vegetarian options for his customers.
“‘Meatball’ will take on a lot of different meanings once we try them out and see what our customers like,” he says.
Hagy says The Peanut Shoppe’s former space is just what he was looking for when choosing a location for the deli.
“We wanted to be on Fourth Avenue, and we wanted to be in the Old Main Corridor. When I found out The Peanut Shoppe was available, that’s when we made our plans to put the deli in.”
Because the Arcade Building is a historic landmark, the contractor had to adhere to certain guidelines when working on the deli, ultimately giving the space a modern feel with a classic twist. Hagy says he recognizes the history behind his new business’s location and opted to keep the Virginia Roasted Peanuts sign in the window.
“That’s part of the history of The Peanut Shoppe, so we left all of that on there,” he says. “I think that’s the nostalgia people love to see.”
One loyal La Famiglia customer excited about Mulberry Street Meatball Co. & Deli is 21 at the Frederick owner Mark Cross, who says the deli is a great place for him to grab lunch before starting his work. With his restaurant located across the street from the deli, Cross says he’s excited for the foot traffic it will bring to Fourth Avenue.
“It brings action,” he says. “Having more restaurants will make Fourth Avenue a destination for people all over the area. If he’s successful, he’s going to help all of us.”
Tourigny, whose office is just a block away from Mulberry Street Meatball Co. & Deli, says she’s thrilled she’ll have a place to buy meats and deli items so close to work and echoes Cross’s sentiment by referencing the number of apartment renovations that have taken place on Fourth Avenue over the past few years.
“It will be great for Fourth Avenue,” she says. “It will be great for the people who now live downtown. It will be great for the people who work downtown. There’s a need for it.”
With the success of La Famiglia, and Mulberry Street Meatball Co. & Deli sure to follow, Hagy has maintained the same principles he started with more than three years ago. Even when suppliers come to him with promises of lower deals and better offers, he refuses.
“I want to maintain quality products and quality ingredients and continue to produce the food that my mother and my dad would be proud of,” Hagy says. “I want to stick to my value of providing quality, authentic Southern Italian cuisine to the customers.”
Reflecting on the past three years, Hagy says the most rewarding part of the experience is being able to work with his family, as well as meet many new, fantastic people, and notes there are two types of customers he likes: returning customers and new customers.
Hagy smiles and says, “It’s kind of like we’ve created an extended family.”
