Elk Grove couple latest in family to meet at Dominick's

Tina DeSario and Angelo LaBarbera met as teenagers working in the aisles of their local Dominick's Finer Foods store.

Next September, the Elk Grove Village couple will walk down an aisle of a different sort: a wedding aisle.

Dominick's officials thought their story was so compelling, they honored the couple during a grand opening celebration Wednesday at their newest store, located at Foster Avenue and Sheridan Road on Chicago's North side.

As it turns out, however, Tina DeSario is hardly alone when it comes to members of her family finding their future mate at Dominick's.

“My parents met while working at Dominick's, too,” DeSario said. “It's kind of funny.”

In fact, to their amazement, Dominick's officials discovered it was the fifth time a member of DeSario's family met their future spouse while working at one of their stores. In all, 31 members of her extended family have worked for the chain.

DeSario's great uncle, Frank Cannistra who started the family's relationship with the grocery store also met his wife while working at Dominick's. His ties to the company go back to its founder, Dominick DiMateo, whom he remembered as friendly and approachable.

“He would come in and grab a peach,” said Cannistra, who now lives in Scottsdale, Ariz. “You could always talk to him. He treated me like a son.”

Many of DeSario's family members attended Wednesday's celebration, including cousins Mary Kay Cannistra, who works at the Dominick's in Mount Prospect, Steve Kosac, the meat manager of a Dominick's in Northfield, and Joann Flannigan, who works in the deli department at the Park Ridge store.

“Dominick's started out as a family owned company and we've kept that culture,” company president Don Keprta said. “We see ourselves as a family, so we're not shocked when employees meet each other and end up getting married.”

DeSario and LaBarbera met in high school while both worked part-time at the Dominick's in Park Ridge. She was a cashier and he worked as a stocker in the grocery department.

Both have remained with the grocery chain, and worked their way up. DeSario is the customer service manager at the Dominick's at Damen and Kedzie in Chicago; her fiancee is co-manager of the store in Lincoln Square.

Like many Dominick's employees, DeSario and LaBarbera remained at their job far longer than they ever thought.

DeSario said the academic scholarships she earned from the employee-funded Dominick's Foundation helped her afford her undergraduate degree and now covers her graduate courses, both at Northeastern University in Chicago.

“You think you're only going to be there for a year,” DeSario said. “But I worked there through high school, then college, and now I'm going to graduate school, and they helped me pay for a lot of it.”