Century-old Viola’s changes hands

The family-owned liquor store has just its fourth owner in more than 100 years on Wood Street

By Patrick Luce
Posted 2/11/17

More than 100 years ago, two immigrants from Sicily moved to Bristol looking to make their way as local entrepreneurs. The Campanella brothers worked long hours at the former National India Rubber …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Register to post events


If you'd like to post an event to our calendar, you can create a free account by clicking here.

Note that free accounts do not have access to our subscriber-only content.

Day pass subscribers

Are you a day pass subscriber who needs to log in? Click here to continue.


Century-old Viola’s changes hands

The family-owned liquor store has just its fourth owner in more than 100 years on Wood Street

Posted

More than 100 years ago, two immigrants from Sicily moved to Bristol looking to make their way as local entrepreneurs. The Campanella brothers worked long hours at the former National India Rubber Company, eventually saving enough to open a small grocery and package store on Wood Street in 1915.

That store, known as Viola’s Liquor Store since the 1950s, still operates at 219 Wood St. It’s always been known as a small,  neighborhood shop, owned and operated by local residents serving their neighbors. That tradition continues. After a recent sale, Viola’s is now operated by a new local owner, just the fourth in the 102 years since its founding.

Joseph Campanella established the small grocery and package store in 1915 as a place for neighbors to stock up on whatever household supplies they needed. At some point, a gas pump was even installed outside, according to Mr. Campanella’s grandson, Stephen DeRosa, making his grandfather a pioneer of sorts in the business world.

“My grandfather kind of invented the convenience store,” said Mr. DeRosa, who remembers visiting the store regularly, even after his family no longer owned it. “When I was a kid in the 1950s, I would go to the store after school, where I remember sitting on the counter and doing homework, only being allowed to help out with small tasks and watch the black and white TV when my homework was done.”  

Mr. Campanella ran the store until retiring in 1940, when his brother Sam took over. In the 1950s, the store was sold for the first time to Manuel and Lucinda Lagarto, who named it Viola’s after the instrument Mr. Lagarto played. They ran the store until selling it for just the second time in 1984 to Herbie Moitoso.

“I’m only the third owner in more than 100 years,” Mr. Moitoso said recently, before selling it to its fourth owner, Michael Brito Jr., on Jan. 10. “For 32 years I’ve owned it. It is time to retire. The pan is to try to enjoy life, rest, enjoy the grandkids.”

Mr. Moitoso, who was named the Fourth of July Parage Chief Marshall in 1999, said he will miss the regular visitors a local store that services and depends on surrounding neighbors tends to attract. “I’ll miss building those relationships,” he said. “In summer we get some from out of town, but most of them come from the neighborhood.”

That tradition of local service will continue under the new ownership, according to Andrew Sylvester, new general manager of the store, who has overseen some changes in the store’s layout, but has kept in place traditional touches, including the original wooden beer cooler behind the counter.

“People say it’s the coldest beer in town,” Mr. Sylvester said, noting he has tried to open the small space up for customers to move more freely. “We’re trying to make it as functional as possible.”

The store will continue to carry similar inventory, focusing on core brands of beer, liquor and wine, said Mr. Sylvester, who used to work at 1776 Liquors on Metacom Avenue. There will also be a section of Portuguese wines and spirits to serve the large Portuguese community in the surrounding neighborhood. One key addition will be a bigger craft beer selection, and more signage to let customers know what selections are available in the coolers behind the counter.

“We also want to customize,” Mr. Sylvester said. “I want customers to know if we don’t have something they want, we will try to accommodate them.”

It’s all in keeping with the local tradition of the store, whose customers are largely local, along with Roger Williams University students and people traveling back and forth to Prudence Island, the ferry to which is just down Constitution Street from Viola’s.

“It’s been steady business since we took over,” Mr. Sylvester said. “Because it’s a mom and pop place, people always come here. The customers are loyal.”

Viola’s Liquor Store, at 219 Wood St., is open Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. - 10 p.m.; Sunday, 12-6 p.m.

Viola's Liquor Store

2024 by East Bay Media Group

Barrington · Bristol · East Providence · Little Compton · Portsmouth · Tiverton · Warren · Westport
Meet our staff
Jim McGaw

A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.