Special Webisode: The Italian-American Experience

While we were filming at Tony’s Pizza Napoletana we met Marti Casey, the editor-in-chief of Salute’ Magazine, a publication dedicated to celebrating the Italian-American experience. Of course, there we were, in the heart of San Francisco’s Little Italy section, North Beach, eating amazing pizza at Tony’s, surrounded by quintessential Italian-American focaccerias, pork shops, bakeries, and classic spaghetti and meat ball trattorias, so what better place to discuss the immigrant experience. As you will see, we got off the subject a few times (don’t miss Marti’s description in the first part of the video, of her first business, making beef jerky, and the slogan they came up with to sell it), but we soon realized that the Italian-American experience was, in a sense, a metaphor and microcosm of the entire American immigrant experience. What used to be called a melting pot is now often called a salad bowl, but the common thread and essential commonality is that people came to this country, and still do, because it represents the single greatest symbol of opportunity in the history of the world. The immigrant experience is all about the possibility of reinvention of one self and freedom from any preconceived boxes that held individuals back in the past. Not everybody manages to leverage that opportunity into a successful life but the odds sure are greater here, even now during these turbulent times. North Beach, and its adjacent China Town, are perfect examples of that, so it was enjoyable spending time with Marti, sharing our own stories and viewing them through the lens of the Italian-American version.

One thing we’ve learned over and over again while out on our pizza quest is that when you’re on a quest you meet some really interesting people and it reinforces an intuition that I think many of us have: no matter where you are from, when it comes right down to it, we are not all that different from each other.