NEW FACILITY

   NOW OPEN!

After nearly 50 years and some 50 million pounds of hand made sausage, the Roma Sausage Company has moved from its modest corner row home production facility in the Highlandtown neighborhood of Baltimore City, to the new state of the art Roma Gourmet Food Building. The new location is just 2 miles from the old facility and is producing the same high quality gourmet sausage that Roma customers know and love. The new Roma Gourmet Food building located at 6801 Eastern Avenue in East Baltimore is the home of Roma’s food production and storage operation, the management, sales and marketing staff, as well as Roma’s easy customer pick up at the facility and e-commerce.

Roma Sausage Company is very proud to announce that the U.S. Local Business Association has awarded The Roma Sausage Company the 2008 & 2009 “BEST of BALTIMORE” for its sausage products .We are very proud of this recognition and would like to thank everyone involved in this honor.

The Roma Sausage Company was founded in 1963 by owner Joe Misotti. Joe started in the food service industry as a caterer at the Pimlico race track in Baltimore. Joe's specialty was his homemade meatballs and sausage. The meatballs were good but the sausage was great. When he was asked by his customers at the track where he got his sausage he told them "I made it myself." Using the recipe that his Palermo born father gave him, Misotti's sausage soon became a local sensation. Encouraged by his family and friends Joe Misotti opened the Roma Sausage Company.

Joe decided to open his shop in the heavily Italian populated neighborhood of Highlandtown. in Baltimore City. The location was a corner row home on Claremont Avenue. This would be the home of Roma Sausage until 2009, and is where Joe and his family would begin what would become a Baltimore institution. Misotti, along with his wife, Filomena, daughters, Mary Ann and Francis, and son Joe, was involved in all facets of the family sausage business.

Joe's sausage business was a typical "Mom and Pop" enterprise. Roma Sausage would become a local favorite product in Italian stores and restaurants throughout Baltimore City. Joe was content in producing just enough handmade sausage to provide a comfortable living for him and his family.

When the time came, in 1985, Joe, Sr. decided to retire. He was happy to pass the Roma sausage legacy to his only son Joe. Joe and his wife, Betty Jean would follow in Joe, Sr.'s footsteps and produce the same handmade Roma Sausage in the same Highlandtown row home. Joe's sisters were very pleased that their brother would take the reigns of the family business. Joe would continue to serve the Roma Sausage customer base while gaining new customers that were hungry for Roma's products. Days, months, and years would go by and Joe and his small staff would continue to hand make Roma sausage. Joe was proud that his father's quality sausage was available at the finest restaurants and delis in Baltimore.

Then, in 1976, a 12 year old boy from the neighborhood walked into the Roma shop. His name was Dean Paciocco and immediately Joe Misotti took a liking to him. Joe put Dean to work. "Mr. Joe," as Dean would call him, put Dean to work doing odd jobs around the shop. This would be the beginning of a relationship that would last for many years. Dean would become the son that Mr. Joe never had.

**Click here for Dean Paciocco's Biography**

Mr. Joe would teach Dean every aspect of the Roma Sausage business. He would meet new customers, go out on deliveries, and eventually learn and master the art of hand making Roma sausage. The Roma Sausage Company began to grow outside the Baltimore City area to the surrounding counties. Dean saw the huge potential in this great product but Mr. Joe was content making sausage out of the small row home with his handful of employees, employees that have been with Roma for 20 years or more.

In 1993, Mr. Joe made Dean his partner in the Roma Sausage Company and upon Mr. Joe's unfortunate passing in 2007, Dean Paciocco became sole proprietor of the Company.

Paciocco knew that Roma Sausage Company was outgrowing the Claremont facility. He knew that a move had to be made due the great demand for his sausage -- he had six trucks on the street delivering daily, and had regrettably been forced to turn away requests from supermarket chains for his products.

This is when Dean was introduced to Albert Pecora.

**Click here for Albert Pecora's Bio**

Al is a long time resident of Baltimore. When his family came to America from Italy, they settled in Highlandtown. Although years apart, Dean and Albert attended the same schools in the same neighborhood. In 2008, Al had just sold his very successful AV Imports Wine and Spirit Company and was looking for a new business adventure.

Dean and Albert met and discussed a vision and long term plan for the future of the Roma Sausage Company.

Dean and Al established the Roma Gourmet Food Company, with Dean as President and Albert as the CEO. The first order of business was to find a new location. After a long search they agreed on the site of the old Crosse and Blackwell Company; still in east Baltimore and only 2 miles from the original Roma Sausage shop.

Dean Paciocco

Born and raised in the Highlandtown neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland, Dean Paciocco graduated from Patterson High School in Baltimore City. As a child growing up on Claremont Avenue, Dean lived only a few houses from the Roma Sausage Company. In the early 1970's Dean, who was then only 12 years old, began working at Roma. He started by doing odd jobs, such as putting boxes away and going out on deliveries with the owner, Joe Misotti. Dean would make a few dollars a day and, of course, all the sausage he could eat. Paciocco worked summers and holidays at Roma continuously through his high school years. After graduation, he considered a career in law enforcement; however, Mr. Misotti had other ideas for Dean and told him that his future was at Roma.

At the age of 18, Dean's father passed away and the relationship between Paciocco and Misotti became one of father and son. Dean stayed at Roma and began making sales calls and successfully garnering new business.

In 1994 Joe Misotti made Dean a partner in the Roma Sausage Company. Mr. Misotti taught Dean everything he knew about producing his locally well-known sausage. All the secret sausage recipes that Misotti had received from his father he now passed on to Dean.

The partnership would last for nearly 13 years until in July of 2007, when Dean's partner and mentor, Misotti, died of lung cancer. Dean became the sole owner of the Roma Sausage Company.

Today, as President of the new Roma Gourmet Food Company, Dean continues to oversee the everyday production of Roma sausage products. Paciocco lives in Cecil County with his wife of 22 years, Pam, their son Phillip 15, and daughters Ariana 12 and Bella 10.

Albert E. Pecora

Albert Pecora immigrated with his family to Baltimore, Maryland, from the town of Cosenza in Calabria, Italy in 1958. Pecora graduated from Patterson High School and later enrolled at the University of Baltimore, School of Law.

During the 1970's Albert joined his family business and began a successful career as a restaurant and night club owner, owning restaurants in Baltimore, Towson, and Bel Air, Maryland. In 1980, Albert formed a local wine and spirit import and distribution company and aptly named it Albert E. Pecora Imports.

Later, Pecora co-founded the very successful A.V. Imports Company, in 1986. It began as a small Italian wine importer and developed into an industry leader. As President of A.V. Imports, Pecora saw his company grow to one that represented products from 14 different countries, employed over a hundred people nationally, and grossed annual sales of seventy million dollars. A.V. Imports distributed its products to all 50 states and Canada, using a network of over 200 distributors.

In 1996, AV Imports nationally launched one of the most dynamic wine brands the industry had ever seen -- LUNA di LUNA. Luna di Luna, the wine in the blue, red and many colored bottles, would become an award winning best selling Italian wine throughout the United States. Pecora credits the success of Luna di Luna to creative packaging and great quality at an affordable price. In 2007, after 21 years in business and millions of wine and spirit case sales Pecora and his partner sold AV Imports.

Mr. Pecora joined the Baltimore-based Roma Sausage Company, as CEO, in 2008 and quickly branded the company Roma Gourmet Foods. He intends to build on Roma Sausage Company's existing foundation of success and quality to develop a national leader in the production of gourmet food products.