Photography by Stephen Buchanan
Photography by Stephen Buchanan
The name of Emily Chandler’s Piazza Italian Market in historic downtown Easton reflects her personal vision—one that has shaped her full-service gourmet market. That vision took shape during her more than a dozen trips to Italy, including a semester of college in Rome.
“Piazza in Italian means a town square, a central gathering location,” Chandler says. “Every Italian town has at least one even if it’s a tiny town.”
Which is to say there’s a community aspect to Chandler’s market as well as a culinary one. And it clearly appeals to Eastern Shore customers.
Piazza Italian Market opened in December 2008 with 1,000 square feet of space. In 2017, Chandler, an Easton resident, moved into a 3,000-square-foot-space in the same Talbot Town Shopping Center.
In 2020, the 39-year-old Chandler opened a 2,000-square-foot kitchen two blocks away. She currently employs 19 full-time people.
“I think our shop is a meeting place for people in the community,” Chandler says. “They’ll say, ‘Let’s eat lunch at Piazza,’ or people come in to shop and they see someone they haven’t run into in a while. It’s adding to the community experience. I think we have built a loyal customer base.”
Piazza Italian Market offers meals to go, dine-in for lunch and nearly a thousand grocery items, including pasta, Italian wines, olive oils, and seasonings. Customer favorites include lasagna to go and Campania panini.
To learn more, we sat down with Chandler to discuss her thriving business.
Tell me about your Campania panini sandwich. The Campania is our number sandwich served on site. It has all the best stuff. Prosciutto di Parma, mozzarella cheese, tomatoes, basil, and olive oil. It’s such a good combination. The mozzarella and the tomatoes are juicy. The prosciutto brings the salty element. You don’t need more than that as far as a sandwich goes. It tastes delicious and it tastes like you are in Italy.
What food item is also popular? Oh my gosh, our carryout lasagna. We don’t serve them in-house. They take over an hour to warm up. The lasagna to go takes an hour to cook and it’s a generous portion for two people. It’s the number one seller out of the case. We have five different lasagnas that we make. Every week we make two different kinds. They are all very good.
What is the top-selling item off the shelf? Probably our dried pasta. The first few years, Piazza was new, and I was new. People were wary and thinking, “Who is this person with their very expensive lasagna? Why would I ever spend so much? I can get supermarket pasta for $2.99.” Anybody who has tried this Setaro brand that we sell is converted. They say other pasta is just not the same. It has been a staple with us since day one. It makes you the best chef with a minimal amount of effort. You just put a little bit of salt, olive oil, and parmesan and it’s going to taste great. It comes from an area outside of Napoli that is known in Italy for its dried pasta. For a two and half pound bag, it is 16 dollars. You taste this and you are like, “Oh my gosh.” It’s hard to go back to other pasta.
What else do customers crave to cook at home? Olive oil to me is the secret seasoning of Italian cooking. It’s the flavor that tastes Italian that you don’t think about. You make any old tomato sauce and add extra virgin olive oil on top and suddenly it tastes like you are in Italy. Our olive oil selection is really great. Each type has its own little fan base. Every Saturday, we sample out three olive oils for people to taste. Through that process, they get to know what they like. All the olive oils we sell are extra virgin. They all have health benefits.
Why did you decide to open Piazza Italian Market? I was working in specialty retail in New York from 2006 to 2008 at the Bedford Cheese Shop in Brooklyn. In 2008, I was thinking, “I like this. I have found my thing: specialty retail. I like this, but I want to do it for myself.” My family convinced me not to stay in Brooklyn and come to the Eastern Shore. They said, “Brooklyn doesn’t need another specialty shop. Easton does. You know a lot about Italian food. Why don’t you focus on that?”
Photography by Stephen Buchanan
Did going to Italy all those times really influence you that much? That’s how I know anything and everything. I started going to Italy first traveling with my family on vacation. There were several different trips over the years, starting when I was nine. I also spent a semester abroad. It was a program through Temple University. It was fall 2004.
Why did you open an eatery and market and not just a restaurant? I have always gravitated to grocery stores. Some people love restaurants. I love grocery stores. Some people are restaurant people. I always thought of myself as a shopping person. That’s the way I oriented myself growing up. In Rome, I was thinking which store has the best bread? Which store has the best cheese? Trying to locate those places in Rome helped me map the city and learn all about Italian food.
How has your place changed over the years? It really has changed a lot. We always meet customer demand. When we opened, it was centered on the deli. Then we cooked more meals and the sauces we made; customers were latching onto them. We wanted to fulfill that experience, so we kept growing the kitchen, our meal program, and our sauce program. Same thing with our sandwich program. We started off being exclusively a deli and started adding more things. The idea was to have more display space for our prepared meals and accommodate customers in the dining room for our sandwich program.
Can you tell me about your staff? There’s a lot of knowledge that my employees have acquired. It’s helpful for me and my customers that they have become professionals in a niche sector. I would say half of the employees have been here for five or more years.
Piazza Italian Market 218 N. Washington Street, Ste. 23, Easton | 410-820-8281 | piazzaitalianmarket.com
