The Carollo Family

The Carollo family, led by proprietor Mike Carollo, has run Carollo’s Italian Grocery & Deli in Kansas City’s River Market since the early 1990s — a Sicilian-rooted institution known for house-made Italian sausage, cannoli, olive salad, and a deep selection of imported groceries.

Biography

Both the family’s own site and The City Market date the business to 1989 at its River Market location.¹² Founded by Mike Carollo, it is run today with his brother Frank and Mike’s sons Anthony and Frankie — two working generations of the family.¹ Carollo’s built its reputation on quality and tradition rooted in Mike Carollo’s Sicilian heritage — house-made Italian sausage, fresh deli meats and cheeses, cannoli, olive salad, and from-scratch specialties drawn from recipes of his boyhood home in Sicily.¹

Located in the heart of the River Market, Carollo’s has remained a trusted destination for Kansas City’s Italian-food community and home cooks alike for more than three decades.²

Legacy

Carollo’s represents the durable thread of Italian-American food culture in Kansas City — a family grocery and deli that has kept Sicilian tradition alive in the city’s oldest market district.

See also

• carollos-retail-market-deli
• river-market

Sources

Note retained from the page’s earlier revision: no pre-1988 Carollo grocery or sausage lineage in Kansas City’s historic Italian North End is documented. The family’s documented story is the 1989 River Market business to the present, plus Mike Carollo’s Sicilian upbringing — do not assert an older ancestral chain.

Footnotes

1. “Carollo’s Italian Grocery and Deli,” official site — “Carollo’s Italian Grocery and Deli has been serving the Kansas City area from it’s River Market location since 1989. Proprietor Mike Carollo provide his customers with the highest quality authentic Italian food and products, but he also shares cooking tips and family recipes that he learned years ago in his boyhood home in Sicily. Together with his brother Frank and his sons Anthony and Frankie…”; house-made Italian sausage and other from-scratch specialties. ↩ ↩² ↩³

2. “Carollo’s Italian Grocery & Deli,” The City Market (Kansas City) merchant listing — “a long-standing specialty grocer and deli located in Kansas City’s Historic City Market, offering authentic Italian foods and imported products since 1989. Founded by proprietor Mike Carollo,” known for house-made Italian sausage, cannoli and olive salad alongside fresh deli meats and cheeses. ↩ ↩²