Drogheria Fine

Mom and pop shops rule in Montreal, but they’re becoming more rare as generations divide. Tucked in beside the Fairmont Bagel shop, Drogheria, a tiny shop specializing in Italian tomato sauce and olive oil, is quite the example of this business model: do one thing right and sell on nostalgia. Franco Gattuso sold his mom and pop restaurant, Il Piatto della Nonna, where mama was behind the stove. A departure from the chaotic restaurant industry, the store has 10 products, including fresh homemade pasta and egg-noodles, olive oils to name a few. Its mason jars stacked upon the industrial steel shelves makes you feel like you’re in your mother’s pantry. Of course, “La Salsa della Nonna,"his mother’s tomato sauce recipe made in-house, reigns supreme as the top seller. I was curious as to what $10 tomato sauce tasted like. It tasted homemade but use it right away or the oil tends to build up. That said, those flavourful tomatoes will definitely give you memories of a heaping plate of spaghetti on a cobblestoned street at a trattoria in Rome.