Barbiere Family

Felix Barbiere emigrated from Simbario, Calabria, Italy to the United States in 1905. He crossed the Atlantic Ocean on the SS Prinz Adalbert with his sister, Immacoalata, and brother, Salvador. The trio arrived at Ellis Island in December. They were going to Ishpeming to join their father, Quintilian, who worked as a shoemaker. Felix, like many young immigrants, found a job in the mines. In 1911, he married Concetta Sarvello, who had come to Ishpeming in 1910.

Sometime in 1920, Felix was injured in an accident and was no longer able to work in the mine. In order to support his growing family, he started a confectionery shop at 208 W. Division St. in Ishpeming. There was also a barbershop on the first floor and the family lived on the second floor.

In time, the confectionery shop turned into a hot dog stand and sometime in the 1930’s Felix began selling “gudighi” or “cudighi” sandwiches. His shop was right next door to the Roosevelt Bar, whose patrons were always hungry when the bar closed. While Felix was not the first to make cudighi sausage but he is believed to be the first to use it in a sandwich and sell it. Felix’s cudighi sandwiches were always served with mustard and onions and soon they became a food synonymous with Marquette County’s foodways. Both Concetta and Felix prepared mouth-watering Italian food and insisted on using only high quality ingredients in their meals. Felix raised his own pigs for use in the cudighi sausage.

However, cudighi sandwiches were not Felix’s most important contribution to the Marquette County culinary scene. In the 1950s, Felix’s sons Anthony and Salvatore moved to Milwaukee and opened Mama Mia’s Restaurant on North Avenue and several others over the years. Most of Felix’s other children went to work at these restaurants and two returned to Marquette County to open their own. His son Nicholas opened Barbiere’s Villa Capri in 1967 using some of his parents Italian recipes. Son Augustino continued the tradition by opening Tino’s Bar and Pizza in Negaunee, which he owned for twenty years.

The next generation got into the act in 1981, opening Mama Mia’s in Ishpeming, owned by August’s son Phillip, and Casa Calabria in Marquette owned by Felix and Concetta’s grandchildren; Jim, Joan and Phil Johnson. All of these restaurants are still popular today, known for their authentic family Italian comfort foods and legendary garlic bread. Though Tino’s Bar and Mamma Mia’s have been sold to other families, both the Villa Capri and Casa Calabria are still owned and operated by Felix’s descendants.