I received an email today asking me about the Club from an Italian who grew up in my home town in upstate New York and who just relocated to Dallas from Chicago. It got me thinking. Now as the President of the Italian Club of Dallas you might at first think this is my “responsibilities” talking… but it’s really not… this is about my roots and about my passion.
I was raised in a large Italian family in Binghamton, New York. Every Sunday from when I can barely remember to when I left for college we would go to my Nana and Pop Pop’s house where our entire family would gather and sit at the table for hours eating a full 7-course meal all made from scratch by my Nana. My Grandfather, and his 5 brothers and sisters, all emigrated from the Abruzzo region of Italy so when our family gathered it was quite an undertaking… on a weekly basis.
I first discovered the Italian Club Dallas while looking for Italian language lessons in the area. I had just completed my 12th trip to Italy and knew I needed to learn the language better before my upcoming 13th trip. One of my side interests has been researching my family history in Abruzzo and when I research there now, I work in small local churches with historical records dating back to the early 1500s. Rarely do I encounter people that speak English in the areas I now visit so I needed to learn and the ICD gave me some really great classes to do that.
Taking the classes grew into attending some of the Club’s events, mainly our Friday night Cenas (evening meals). At first I’d occasionally go with some of my language classmates but over time, the people of the ICD have become my extended Italian family.
What in my youth was Sunday afternoons at Nana’s house has now in my adulthood turned into Friday evenings at the ICD.
 |
| Myself (in green) with some Club Members at Taste Addison |
If you’ve never attended an event at the ICD but you are curious, I invite you to send me an email and to please join me and our family for a Cena on a Friday night to experience the ICD. Or better yet, as we say in our marketing efforts, to “Come To Your Italian Senses”.
Our tables always end up being large groups of friends… both old and new… and we share good food, good wine, lots of laughter (did I mention LOTS?!) and often times the nights end on the patio with maybe a limoncello and a cigar or a friendly card game at the tables inside. The friends I have made through the Club are now some of my closest friends in Dallas and the new people I have met in just a short time as President of the Club are really wonderful new additions to my life.
I know it might sound hokey, especially living in Dallas… but at the Italian Club Dallas we are a family. We’ve almost all relocated to Dallas from elsewhere, both in the United States and from Italy, but we all share a common bond of Italian ancestry… or even for our non-Italian members and guests… we simply share a passion for a country that is full of passion.
When we introduced our new marketing campaign to our membership last fall, we presented some copy that I still feel captures us so well. Please read it, feel it, enjoy it and then come experience it with us!
You open the door and your senses come alive.
The smell of garlic, tomatoes, basil; of something wonderful
being prepared in the kitchen by a skilled and passionate chef.
The sight of friendly faces welcoming you in.
The pop of a cork from a freshly opened bottle of wine,
the musical clink of glasses raised in a toast,
the earsplitting sound of laughter, music, friendship and joy fill the air, taking you back to a place
that once, many years ago, you called home.
Some call this hospitality. We call it famiglia.
This is what real Italian feels like. The colors are brighter.
The tastes are better. The world is a more beautiful place.
So come...Come To Your Italian Senses.
No comments:
Post a Comment