For the past forty-nine years, Roselli Wholesale Foods has made magic happen in restaurants, pizzerias, and delicatessens in and around Bay City, Monroe, Lansing, the edge of Lake Huron, and beyond with delicious specialty supplies from its base along Groesbeck Highway in Fraser, Michigan. In wholesale trading, scale is everything, and Roselli ensures that its customers are always well-stocked and ready for action, no matter how large the demand.
Tony Roselli had the full support of his parents and his wife when opening the company’s doors in 1971. While he changed his suit for a pair of delivery overalls after completing his daily sales trips, his wife took care of administration on a makeshift desk, his mother made sure everyone was well-fed, and his dad took care of the company’s warehouse alongside an assistant. Even Tony’s son, Antonio David Roselli, only a youngster then, contributed to the family business by lending a hand with the deliveries. Today, Tony’s son helps lead the company as vice president.
Their determination reminds of a life lesson shared by an elderly Italian friend, many years ago. He pointed at the large lunch table we were seated at, laden with delicious food and surrounded by loved ones. He said that such moments are all we work for and beyond the togetherness of good people, good food and wine, good music, and good health, nothing else matters. Everything else is extra. Like the old Italian saying says: “Eat, live, love!”
From writing out invoices on an old door resting on boxes of tomato tins to reaching the top of the Michigan food supply scene, this second-generation food wholesaler has thrived while underscoring the importance of family. Both Roselli Wholesale Food Suppliers and its customers form part of its long family table. Here, service is delivered with a beautiful smile and clients enjoy only the best imported and local quality foods available with an emphasis on local suppliers.
“In sourcing all of our products, we seek to buy from Michigan companies before anyone else. In fact, we deal with every Italian food producer located in Michigan,” says the company.
Quality is the family’s mainstay, and the Roselli family crest emblazoned across every delivery vehicle is its guarantee. Its website is draped in the colors of the Italian flag represented by sweet basil, tomatoes, and cheese like a hearty Caprese salad. From this warm welcome to its friendly staff, everyone and everything contributes to making the company’s offerings exceptional.
Throughout various folk tales and mythology, golden apples are portrayed as a divine food, retrieved by heroes or given as love tokens. Is it any wonder that the Italian word for tomato – pomodoro – translates as golden apple? The company’s range of quality ingredients naturally includes tomatoes in many forms as well as everything from a selection of olive oils, pasta, and ravioli to prosciutto di Parma, salami, and other cured meats, mozzarella, provolone, and pecorino Romano, and other cheeses.
While most agree that no great pizza – or any Italian food – is worth its salt without only the best of cheeses and other specialty toppings to add authentic flavor, there are also American restaurant staples like the Little House, Supreme, and other ranges. Over the years, the company’s line has also expanded to include most kitchen paraphernalia needed for large-scale food preparation. All of this amounts to some seriously delicious food in many of the city’s favorite eateries.
It is not just area restaurants that can take advantage of these products as Roselli also serves the public with its storefront. “While we’re most known for our delivery of wholesale foods, we’re proud to have a storefront where we can provide the same unmatched customer service in a retail environment,” the company says.
As a family business, Roselli Wholesale Foods is acutely aware of its greater community and the company is as generous with its civic family as it is with its own. One of its largest gestures in this regard is an annual golf outing that always benefits a worthy institution, and one such institution is the Cleveland Clinic, a nonprofit academic medical center in Ohio. The company has also made donations to the Detroit Police Department’s chili cook-off amongst many other worthy causes.
“Roselli is a Michigan company through and through. We seek to source all of our products from Michigan before looking anywhere else, and we only serve in Michigan. As a result, we’re proud to be a local company that exists to serve our own communities. We’re loyal to Michigan suppliers and Michigan customers!” says the company.
A Roselli Wholesale Foods, everyone is part of one big family. It also offers friendly advice, and a family member or two are always around to assist customers, which is why many multiple-generation restaurateurs make this food wholesaler their number one stop. Because in Michigan, no matter which pizzeria or restaurant you go to, chances are that you are ultimately dining with the Roselli family.
