PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE BARZIZZA FAMILY
The Barzizza Bros. store on North Main, as it looked in the 1960s. Note that the neon sign advertised lasagna and pasta — just a tiny sample of the exotic foods shopper could find inside.
Dear Vance: Do you remember the “international bazaar” market on Summer Avenue, just east of Avon? I believe it was owned by the Barzizza family. — D.P., Memphis
Dear D.P.: You partly answered your own question, and I don’t mind that a bit. The store you remember was called Barzizza’s, and it was indeed a type of “international bazaar,” the last retail venture of an enterprising Italian family who began with an imported food store here and turned it into a shopping extravaganza with three locations around the city.
Born in the late 1800s in the village of Bassignana in northern Italy, brothers Frank and Eugene Barzizza came to Memphis in 1923 and opened an imported-foods grocery downtown at 176 North Main. It’s hard to describe the size or scope of their business very accurately, because the first mention in the newspaper of Barzizza Bros., as they called their new venture, was a tiny advertisement promoting a three-pound can of something called Bosch’s Malt, “The Daddy of ’Em All!”
Later ads concentrated on only two other products: cans of Superba chicken ravioli and Superba mushroom gravy, each described as a “palate-tingling delight” but both made “in a spotless modern plant in sunny California.” I don’t know about you, but when I think of imported foods, I expect them to come from farther away than the West Coast.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE BARZIZZA FAMILY
Frank (left) and Joseph inside the store on North Main.
Well, in 1932 Barzizza Bros. finally gave Memphians a taste — quite literally — of a considerably more unusual offering. A newspaper story headlined “Here’s the Big Cheese” reported that a 1,035-pound block of cheddar cheese, “quite possibly the largest in the world,” had been on display in the store’s front windows for six months. “Now, you may think that is too old for a cheese to hang around, but the Barzizza brothers, Frank and Eugene, declare the cheese, in the process of ripening, is just now at its delicious best.” The story didn’t mention the price, but lured shoppers by announcing the cheese “had an irresistible flavor all its own, and this huge cake will be cut Saturday morning. Once you try it, it will be a popular favorite for the whole family.”
I presume they sold it by the slice, or the pound. If they sold the entire half-ton block to a single customer, I suspect after a while it might not be that family’s “popular favorite.” (“Not cheese sandwiches for dinner again, Mom!”)
After this dramatic offering, the Barzizzas began to promote and sell an astonishing range of foods. Ads listed cheese, olives, olive oil, sardines, spiced meats, fruit, caviar, anchovies, and macaroni “in every conceivable shape.” And this time, the products didn’t come from California: “From sunny Italy, the vineyards of France, the mountainsides of Switzerland, the fertile valleys of Egypt, the plains of Spain, from England, from Africa, from South America comes the cream of the crops.”
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE BARZIZZA FAMILY
Well-dressed shoppers ponder the incredible variety. Note the shiny cans of olive oil on the shelves.
Newspaper stories announced that “Barzi Brand” foods would be served at the brand-new Claridge Hotel, and the brothers even set up a display at the 1941 Mid-South Fair so visitors could see and sample their latest products. By the 1950s, Barzizza Bros. was booming; there was no other store in Memphis quite like it.
After 40 years on North Main, the Barzizzas had to relocate when developers transformed several blocks in that area into the Civic Center Plaza. In 1963, they found a new home at South Front and Talbot, and expanded their business. Now they were the Barzizza Brothers International Trade Center, selling all sorts of merchandise, including food, furniture, gifts, and household accessories.
A. Schwab’s on Beale Street has long advertised, “If you can’t find it here, you’re better off without it.” The same could be said about Barzizza Bros. They still offered exotics foods, but added unusual gifts and unique furniture brought here from other lands.
By this time, the company was also under the direction of different brothers. Eugene had retired in 1937 and returned to Italy. Frank’s son, Joseph, took over in 1946, and when Frank passed away in 1950, his son, Frank Jr., joined the firm.
In other words, during the 1950s and ’60s, Barzizza Bros. was now Frank and Joseph, and business remained steady. More growth took place in 1969, when the Barzizzas opened a second location on Walnut Grove Road, their spacious, ultra-modern store linked to the indoor, Colonial American-themed Chickasaw Oaks Mall. A few years later, they opened a third store inside Southbrook Mall on Shelby Drive, across from this city’s first indoor shopping center, Southland Mall.
A. Schwab’s on Beale Street has long advertised, “If you can’t find it here, you’re better off without it.” The same could be said about Barzizza Bros. They still offered exotics foods, but added unusual gifts and unique furniture brought here from other lands.
Hard-to-miss advertisements in The Commercial Appeal enticed shoppers with photos of products like “The Jacaranda Group,” a collection of wood and rattan furniture described as “Authentic! Rustic! Beautiful! Executed by skilled Mexican artisans … a point of conversation for the most discreet.” Other promotions promised “much to see from many lands — teakwood, brass, ivory, ceramics, and wood carving, all at direct import prices!”
Of the two brothers, Frank seemed to maintain a higher profile. A graduate of Christian Brothers High School and Santa Clara College in California, he and his wife, Ramona, often made the local society pages. He also began to appear in his company’s eye-catching newspaper ads, posing in front of shelves stacked with wrought-iron sconces, pierced brass boxes, hand-tooled leather-covered bottles, “enduring gifts of Italian alabaster” (ash trays, egg cups, cigarette boxes, and paperweights”), wine-making kits, and food. Barzizza Bros. wasn’t selling 1,035-pound blocks of cheese, but the food department still offered five-pound gift boxes of “zesty cheddar cheese, a very tasteful and impressive gift,” along with “Mrs. Carver’s Home-Baked Fruit Cakes” in two-, three-, or five-pound cans.
In 1972, Barzizza Bros. reported more than a million dollars in annual sales. Everything changed, however, the following year, when the Barzizzas abruptly sold their stores to Pier 1 Imports, a national chain headquartered in Fort Worth. The exotic food selection vanished, for the most part, but unusual furniture, housewares, and gifts were available at the new stores.
Ad courtesy of Key magazine
Frank Barizza later opened his store at Summer and Avon, and published ads like these in local newspapers and magazines.
I wonder if Frank grew bored with retirement. In 1977, he opened his own store on Summer. Joseph had passed away years before, so no brothers were involved; this location was known simply as Barzizza’s. The owner appeared in his ads, in one of them urging customers, “Relax in your own Buri settee woven by skilled Philippine craftsmen, or rattan chairs from Hong Kong and Malaysia. But what you’ll really find ‘out of this world’ are our low direct import prices.”
Barzizza’s was popular, but it lasted less than ten years. In a newspaper story about the 1986 closing, Frank told reporters that import buying and selling had steadily become an unprofitable venture. A pair of intricately hand-carved Chinese chests, he said, “now sell for $628 when they sold for $1,200 just two years ago.”
Even so, it was certainly an interesting business. Barzizza shared a story about the time a customer came in, asking if they had any stuffed armadillos for sale. When he told her they didn’t, and she asked where she might find one, he replied, “Look along the highway near Dallas.”
Mona passed away in 2000, and Frank died the following year; they were laid to rest in Memorial Park. Other members of the Barzizza family are entombed in an impressive stone vault at Calvary Cemetery.
The location on South Front is still standing, but the three-story brick building has been modernized. Southbrook Mall, like so many other shopping malls here, closed years ago but has recently found new life as Southbrook Town Center. And the Pier 1 location on Walnut Grove is today AMUSE Adventure Museum. The last Barzizza store, Frank’s place on Summer, is home to Memphis Professional Imaging.
Many Memphians, it seems, have fond memories of the quirky stores and the Barzizza family members who ran them. When Frank Barzizza passed away in 2001, local businessman William Heuttel, who had remained his friend since the first grade, told reporters, “He was the hardest working guy I ever met. And he was the kind of person that when you met him, in five minutes you just really liked him.”
Got a question for Vance?
Email: askvance@memphismagazine.com
Mail: Vance Lauderdale, Memphis Magazine, P.O. Box 1738, Memphis, TN 38101
