‘Mama Rosa’ leaves legacy of Italian charm
One of Butler’s oldest authentic Italian restaurants has lost its figurehead.
Rosa Fusca, known to the community as “Mama Rosa,” died June 6 at 96 years old after operating restaurants in the area since 1979.
“My mom was my biggest teacher, and she only went to sixth grade in Italy,” said Nick Fusca, the president, CEO and owner of Mama Rosa’s, and her youngest son.
Mama Rosa was born March 29, 1929, in Maierato, Reggio Calabria, a southern Italian province about two hours north of the island of Sicily. She and her husband, Nicola, began producing and selling food in their grocery store in 1950 before Nicola immigrated to the United States in 1960.
Mama Rosa followed in 1962 with her son and two daughters, then gave birth to Nick in 1963. None of them spoke English when they immigrated, Nick said, and Mama Rosa also never learned to drive and took the bus everywhere.
Preservatives weren’t an ingredient in Mama Rosa’s meals, her son said. She continued to make everything fresh in-house when the family opened their first restaurant in 1979 in Etna.
“Back then, you had to cook to survive,” Nick Fusca said, who began working in the kitchen at 11.
He recalled helping his mother create the first recipes for the restaurant. Mama Rosa measured everything in pinches and handfuls, so Nick Fusca would put her handfuls in measuring cups to record the amounts. She taught him to make dough, several types of pasta and fillings.
Nick Fusca had the idea to start selling the sauce in stores.
It’s made with fresh vegetables and tomatoes prepared in 100% olive oil then cooked in a kettle. He got the idea when watching Rosa can fresh tomatoes from her garden. The sauce jars’ label has a picture of Rosa and Nicola’s wedding portrait, Nick Fusca said.
Mama Rosa made the same meals for her customers as she did for her family, which added to her status as “Mama” within the community. She always asked about her customers’ lives and remembered their stories, Nick Fusca said.
He described how she made her customers feel welcome and enticed them with smells of fresh Italian bread. He said he remembers his elementary school bus stopping at their home for children to enjoy fresh bread.
“They were more like friends than customers,” Nick Fusca said about patrons in the restaurant.
Nick Fusca said his mother was devoted to her Catholic faith and always had her rosary beads, reminding her of her faith and Italian roots.
She worked in her stores’ kitchens as long as she could, he said. His parents eventually sold the Etna business and opened another in Lawrenceville. It also eventually closed to focus on the business at 263 Old Plank Road in Butler Township.
Nick Fusca was managing the kitchen of the Butler restaurant by age 17 while Mama Rosa went back and forth between locations making sauce and meatballs. She could roll 20 pounds of meatballs in about 15 minutes.
Friends and relatives gathered Monday at Perman Funeral Home in Pittsburgh to remember Mama Rosa. A Mass of Christian Burial followed Tuesday at St. Mary of the Assumption Church in Glenshaw, Allegheny County.
“The funeral home was packed,” Nick Fusca said.
He said he had felt overwhelmed by the support at the funeral home and felt the community’s loss with his own. Mama Rosa was the only one of her eight siblings left.
She is survived by her four children, six grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. Her husband, Nicola, died in 1990.
