By LAURIE STUART
NARROWSBURG, NY — Rosetta Canto has opened her Italian food and specialty shop. It’s been a lifelong dream.
And as soon as you walk in the door on Main Street in Narrowsburg, you get the sense that you’re walking into a well-curated space.
“Whatever food I was selling, I tried to have something on the table for it,” she said.
That said, to go with the wide variety of imported pasta, there are pasta bowls, both individual and serving-sized. To go with the specialty olive oil, she has olivewood dipping bowls. To go with all of that are a variety of jarred sauces and condiments.
As Canto loves to cook and decorate, she stocks stainless steel utensils and aprons, made in the United States, along with linens and ceramic tableware from Italy. She’s partnering with Double D Sourdough in Jeffersonville, carrying their bread, which she has paired with bread baskets, complete with warming trivets in the bottom.
Harking back to her heritage, the shop carries Italian table knives, “like the ones we used at home.”
Canto is no stranger to the area, having purchased a vacation home in 2012. She originally lived in Bergen County, NJ, where she was her elderly mother’s main caregiver. After her mother passed and with her children married and out of the house, she moved to North Branch full-time in 2022.
Canto was never one to sit around and she needed a purpose in her life after renovating her home and garden, so her brother, who has an Italian importing business, encouraged her to open the shop that she had always dreamed about.
That planted a seed, as she routinely got coffee and food at the Tusten Cup on her way to visit her daughter and grandchildren in Hawley. The “For Rent” sign in the Muse building was “calling my name,” she said. A quick phone call and an enthusiastic response from landlord Laura Santana sealed the deal and gave birth to the dream.
And there you have it: Nonna’s Pantry, 25 Main St., is open Wednesday through Sunday. Hours on Fridays and Saturdays are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. On Wednesdays, the shop closes at 3 p.m., and on Thursdays and Sundays, it closes at 4 p.m. Nonna’s Pantry on social media highlights more pairings and products.
Dining and Cooking