A Hudson Valley institution is closing its doors after three decades, and customers are heartbroken. Giovanni Papandrea was born and raised as one of ten children in southern Italy. He gained a love and appreciation for food growing up on his family's farm. Picking olives, raising animals and even making wine by squashing grapes with his feet, Giovanni has Italian food coursing through his veins.

After arriving in American in 1967, Papandrea lived in Brooklyn where he watched his father make ricotta over an open fire and his mother carefully tending to her homemade tomato sauce.The Italian immigrant opened his first shop in Brooklyn at the age of 17.