4 minute read
Syracuse Sausage: A Family Tradition
Syracuse Sausage: Making People Happy with High-Quality Proteins
BY DAN GUTTENPLAN
For 38 years, Syracuse Sausage has brought the great taste from the Musacchio family kitchen to your grocery stores and restaurants. Making high-quality sausages and meatballs has been a staple of the family business, and the homemade taste keeps customers satisfied and coming back for more!
Anthony and Bobby Musacchio grew up in a house in which the aromas of pasta, sausage, meatballs and sauce filled the air each and every Sunday. They took the family experience of bonding over delicious Italian foods to Texas in 1982 and haven’t looked back since. For 38 years, Syracuse Sausage has been serving national restaurant chains, major grocery stores and other food-service firms.
Anthony Musacchio, co-owner of Syracuse Sausage (along with brother Bobby) and VP of Sales, recently connected with Cowboy Lifestyle Magazine for a Q&A.
I KNOW YOU HAVE A RICH FAMILY TRADITION OF PREPARING AND EATING PASTA, SAUSAGE, MEATBALLS AND PIZZA. WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER ABOUT YOUR FAMILY MEALS?
“We grew up like a lot of other Italians. Bobby and I had a great childhood and family. Mom and Dad used to wake up at 5 a.m. on Sunday mornings to make a new batch of Sunday Sauce. For breakfast, they’d pour us a bowl of warm sauce, fried meatballs and bread. We’d eat it while watching Bugs Bunny. We’d have the traditional spaghetti dinner at 1 in the afternoon. Then on Sunday night they’d roll out pizza dough and we’d have a pizza pie for supper while we watched Wild Kingdom and a Disney movie. Our Uncle Paul had started a sausage plant in New York and named it after his brother Carmen Basilio, who was boxing’s welterweight and middleweight champion of the world from 1955 to 1958. He was a hometown boxer who fought and beat Sugar Ray Robinson at Yankees Stadium for the middleweight title. Uncle Carmen was on my mother’s side of the family. So, my mother’s name was Basilio, and my father’s name was Musacchio. You can’t get many more vowels in there. My parents lived next to each other, and they got married
• Anthony Musacchio (left) and brother Bobby have owned Syracuse Sausage for 38 years.
when my Dad came back with the Marines after world war two. This all took place in an Italian town 18 miles outside of Syracuse.”
YOU SOLD VEGETABLES WITH YOUR BROTHER TO PEOPLE IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD. HOW DID THAT SHAPE YOUR FUTURE?
“My Dad had a huge garden. He grew everything from tobacco to green peas. He’d come home from the garden with vegetables. We were the only house that had a row of garlic, a row of flowers, and another row of garlic in the front yard. Dad came home with corn, tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce. We’d pull a big wagon, and we even had a change-maker. We sold the vegetables and learned to be entrepreneurs. We got to make some money and make people happy.”
HOW DID YOU END UP STARTING THE BUSINESS IN TEXAS?
“Back in the late ‘70s, my brother Joe was running Basilio Sausage for my uncle. He wanted to buy it, but Uncle Paul wasn’t ready to sell. We reached out to a cousin in the Dallas area. We opened a tiny shop in Flower Mound -- it was 1,800 square feet. We put in the mixers and grinders, and started making sausage. Tom Thumb was our first account. We still have it 38 years later.”
HOW DID THE BUSINESS EVOLVE?
“We kept getting little restaurants. We got a phone call one day from two guys that had one restaurant. They wanted to build more. That customer was Norman Brinker, the legendary pioneer of the casual dining, chain restaurant concept. It took off from there.”
AS THE BUSINESS HAS GROWN, HOW MUCH OF A CHALLENGE HAS IT BEEN TO RECREATE THE SAME TASTE AND QUALITY?
“We kept it lean and didn’t cut any corners. We made the sausage a little spicier and leaner down here. When people cook our sausage, they’re surprised there’s not more fat in the pan. It’s done well. The business is growing and growing. We feel we have an inspirational story. We came down here with nothing. We were in stores cooking Sausage and Peppers. People could smell it, and they gave us a try. We’re loyal to our vendors and employees. I truly believe we were blessed when we chose ‘The Great State of Texas’ to be our home. We were country boys in upstate New York who loved the outdoors, and that has not changed and never will. God Bless Texas, and God Bless The USA!”
