Bud’s Market Maintains Family Tradition from 1930

All it took was one visit to Stone Harbor on a summer day in 1922 and Mario Zuccato moved his wife, Ida, and their two young children to the island community. Mario, opened a little neighborhood store, Zuccato’s Market on 83rd Street in 1930. The aromas from Ida’s authentic homemade Italian food tempted and enticed all those who happened by her kitchen.
Despite the Depression and being widowed in 1933, Ida continued to operate Zuccato’s Market until Ida’s son, Bud (a/k/a Mario), returned home in 1945 after serving his country in the Navy during World War II and joined his mother at the market. Ida handed over the day-to-day operations to Bud, but came to the market every day to assist her son as she was not ready to retire.
Bud met the love of his life, Harriet, in Florida and they married in 1951. Plans for a bigger store were in the process, and Bud’s Market opened across the street from Zuccato’s in 1952. Harriet and Bud worked side by side and the new location prospered.
Many of Harriet and Bud’s customers’ children have worked at the market during the summers, and the Zuccatos feel as though their customers are their family.
The matriarch of the Zuccato family, Ida, remarried in the late 1950s after years of being alone. Harriet and Bud provided Ida with three grandchildren – Rick, Mike and Donna.
Ida continued to work at the market almost right up to the day she died in 1970.
Harriet and Bud worked at the market together for the next 55 years.
Harriet and Bud were inseparable spending long hours working together at the store. Harriet and Bud were committed to each other as husband and wife, best friends and business partners.
Their love was deep and true, and in 2009 only two days apart, Harriet and Bud passed away.
Their son, Mike (Ida’s grandson) and his wife Lorraine, and their son Mike Jr. along with their daughter Nancy continue operating the family business.
Bud’s Market is open seven days a week from Memorial Day Weekend through Labor Day Weekend.
Bud’s Market, 83rd Street and Ocean Drive, Stone Harbor.