Gaspare “Jack” Fallucca, the founder of Palermo’s Pizza, passed away today at the age of 82 from natural causes. Growing up in Palermo, Sicily, Fallucca settled in Milwaukee in the late 1950s. Fallucca and his wife’s first venture in the Milwaukee food scene was the opening of the Italian bakery Palermo Villa Inc. in 1964, followed by a restaurant in 1969, where the success of their homemade Italian dishes and famous pizza bread eventually lead them to become a success in the frozen food business, with customers as big as Costco.
As mentioned in our 2010 article “Culinary Close-Ups,” Palermo’s has been featured on the Food Network show “Unwrapped,” and “Factory Made,” which ran on both the Discovery and Science channels.
Palermo’s made headlines recently following a strike by some of the company’s employees. After a group of factory workers submitted a petition to unionize, Palermo’s asked almost 90 immigrant employees to show proof of their right to work. Most of them were then fired. Groups of employees have been on strike since June to protest the treatment of the company’s immigrant workers.
