While also owning an amusement park in Tipton, Pennsylvania, the DelGrosso family has produced its original line of pasta sauce, among other sauces, since 1914. DelGrosso Foods produces two different kinds of sauces: Original DelGrosso and La Famiglia DelGrosso. The Original DelGrosso sauces are sold regionally, including Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio, New York, Virginia, and West Virginia. La Famiglia DelGrosso sauces (or the higher-end sauces) are sold nationally, including the states where the original sauces are sold.
But how did “the finest sauce made” get its start?
Marianna Pulcino immigrated to the United States in 1911 with an old-world pasta sauce recipe. With that recipe, she created Mom’s Café on Walton Avenue in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
In 1936, Marianna’s daughter Mafalda met Ferdinand DelGrosso, a young railroader, and they fell in love. After they married, they opened a small restaurant in 1943 on 17th Street called DelGrosso’s Café. Soon, the restaurant was known for the “best spaghetti dinner in town.”
Customers of DelGrosso’s Café began offering to pay extra to take home a portion of the pasta sauce. Fred then saw a potential to sell their authentic Italian sauces. So, in 1946, Mafalda and Ferdinand bought a nearby park called Bland’s Amusement Park, which would later be DelGrosso’s Amusement Park and Laguna Splash Water Park.
With some of the extra space, they set up to cook and can their Italian sauce. Soon after, their hard work began to pay off. Their distribution increased and local grocery stores began to stock their sauces.
Within the area, the sauce is now sold on the DelGrosso Foods website, as well as local stores like Walmart and Martin’s Food Store. But the higher-end sauce reaches much further than that. It is now available in 49 states across the country. During summer months, DelGrosso Foods even includes a coupon for DelGrosso’s Amusement Park on the label of their sauces.
DelGrosso Foods is now in its third generation. It continues to be the oldest major family-owned manufacturer of pasta sauce in the United States and remains “the finest sauce made.”