Italians in America – Our Immigrant Stories: From coast of Italy to Jersey Shore, seafood empire still swimming after 100 years

By Tanya Tecce

Danielle La Monica La Vecchia Rauso’s ancestors immigrated from Palermo in the 1890s. Her great-grandparents Peter and Mary La Monica started their small fish store at the market on 13th Avenue in Brooklyn in 1923.  At the time there wasn’t a Garden State Parkway and very few bridges, so they eventually wound up moving the family operation to the Cape May, N.J., area to source their fish. As is often the custom in Italian families, all four of their children (Virginia, Peter, Anthony and Salvatore) eventually helped in the business.

Mary and Peter La Monica, Brooklyn, NY, 1928

As Virginia (Danielle’s grandmother) was growing up, she met and married Donato La Vecchia. They went on to have two sons, Daniel (Danielle’s dad) and Michael; and a daughter, Margaret. Daniel and Michael were to later take over the family empire.

“In the late ’70s my dad was working in Cape May, and my mom was still in New York so he would go back and forth to see her until they finally got married and settled in Cape May to raise my sister Nicole and me,” Danielle said.

“They first started at Schellinger’s Landing, which is also known as Cape May Canners. We eventually outgrew that spot, and moved to Burleigh outside Wildwood. At that same time, we acquired the Maryland facility to do all our frying,” she said. “Currently we can clams, clam juice, scungilli, red and white clam sauces, soups, as well as a lot of private label.”

Where it all started (outside of Sicily) – The La Monica Fish Market, 13th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY, 1928

Now in its fourth generation, La Monica Fine Foods is located at the former Gorton’s Seafood plant in Millville, N.J. There, they manage every step in the process – from catching and shucking, to processing and delivering.

Danielle’s dad Daniel acquired their five boats, docked in Atlantic City. As in Italy, they fish every day possible, weather permitting. The very best of the “old country” still in their blood, the La Monica/La Vecchia family is present every step of the way; from catch to release, whether fresh or frozen.

  If New Jersey’s coast can possibly resemble Italy’s, it is echoed in this process as well as how incredibly family oriented and rooted in their Italian/Sicilian tradition La Monica Fine Foods remains after all these years.

“When I started working in our family business, it was just amazing! To see where our food comes from, especially because, of course, we did the seven fishes every Christmas since as far back as I can remember. We’d prepare all year for it! Thirty-five people would visit our parents’ house. We’d eat and sing and play games until midnight. I’d help my mom cut parsley and garlic and make sauce for days ahead of time.

“We’d have scungilli salad, calamari, and octopus. Of course there is an antipasto with Brooklyn-inspired meats, breads and cheeses. Our fishes include the scungilli salad which has conch, octopus, calamari, olives, lemon juice, and garnishes. Then there are the baked clams, red crab sauce with linguine, and shrimp oreganatta. The main dish is always full lobsters, right at the end. By that time after all the other courses, it’s usually very late. Even still, we of course have to have some desserts, and sing songs like the “The Twelve Days of Christmas” before we wrap it up and go to bed.”

Daniel and Michael La Vecchia, 2019

This generation’s involvement in the family business was sealed after Danielle’s grandfather Donato passed when her dad Daniel was just 21 years old. Especially since then, Daniel was a shadow to his uncles Peter, Anthony, and Salvatore. “He clung to them,” Danielle says. “Since his father died, he had his uncles to look up to and he wanted to be with them all the time. He was always at the plant during those years. But it was very strict, it was the 1950s. My uncles would make sure my dad was on time and shaved every day, as an example.”

Grandmom Virginia is 96 now and she passed her love for baking and cooking onto her granddaughter.

“I so loved to bake and cook with her, she taught me so much. I treasure it,” she said. “I remember when she lived in Brooklyn, she would come and stay with us for three  weeks around Christmas time to help us prep and I just loved it! She’d tell me lots of stories about Brooklyn and the old days at the fish market, how different it was from growing up in a beach town like me, and we’d play rummikub, a game she taught me.”

There’s also, of course, the work ethic. “My dad’s work ethic is unmatched. He  works nonstop. I don’t even know if he sleeps, to be honest,” she said. “He definitely passed that on to me.” Danielle remembers how excited she’d get as a little girl when she used to wait for it to be Take Your Daughter to Work Day. Italian-American work ethic on point, she’d even ask her dad to take her to work with him on other days.

“I went to school for fashion and I didn’t expect to work at the company. But here I am 15 years later.” (Actually 15 years, four generations and a centennial celebration later.) “This is way too important” she says.

You’re right Danielle, the most important.

Danielle La Monica La Vecchia Rauso is a fourth-generation
sales manager of her family’s company.
They celebrated 100 years this past 2023.