Trending
Traditional Italian with a taste you'll remember -- Tag's Take Out & Specialty Store, located at 1116 Market St., offers customers a variety of classic favorites that have been passed down for generations.
The family-owned business first began back in 1959, when husband and wife Aldo Larue Tagliaferri and Ilivia "Leah" Taddeo, purchased a building on Memorial Avenue.
"They started it as a way to feed the blue collar workers across the street from the Pajama Factory. It was a bar and grill at first. They made garbage sandwiches, then it was meatball subs. One day my grandmother was making spaghetti and meatballs. People went nuts for it, and it just kind of took off from there and became a beloved family restaurant. A place where people took their families for generations," said Alivia Tagliaferri, co-owner of Tag's Take Out.
Aldo and Leah operated the restaurant together until Leah's death in 1999.
At that time, Aldo transferred ownership of Tag's to their son and his wife, Anthony and Theresa Tagliaferri, who operated Tag's until Anthony's premature passing in June of 2005.
The Take Out business is now owned by the third generation, brother and sister, Alivia and Aldo Tagliaferri.
"It was just a unique experience. It was the food and it was the ambiance and the friendliness and the family atmosphere that made Tag's unique amongst a lot of other great Italian restaurants at that time," Alivia said.
"A lot of customers come in and say they had their first date or they had some special event, like their parents’ 50th wedding anniversary. People still talk about my dad and grandfather, they always greeted everybody, kissing the ladies' hands and giving the gentlemen handshakes. It’s just stuff you don’t see anymore," said Aldo Tagliaferri, co-owner of Tag's Take Out. "A lot of our previous customers’ kids are coming in. We’ve had a lot of support. Even the local neighbors have been coming in. We’re very, very lucky. We’ve been very fortunate so far this year," he added.
Tag's Take Out offers all the original pasta and sauce recipes including hand-made pasta, gnocchi, fettuccine, cheese ravioli, meat ravioli, eggplant parmesan and lasagna dinners.
They also have rotating weekly specials and soup of the week.
Some of the featured specials include chicken parmesan, baked ziti, chicken marsala, baked Italian pork chops, fish florentine, baked Italian chicken and more.
"It’s the exact same recipes as whatever our parents made and taught us. So it was handed down to them, it was handed down to our parents and it was handed down to us. These are the same recipes that came over from our great-grandparents that came across from Italy," Alivia said.
"We make our food fresh every morning," Aldo said.
Tag's offers a selection of locally sourced goods and imports including John Flocks Gourmet Italian Peppers, Batter-Up Bakery cheesecakes, Predonis pastries and desserts, and Italian bread from Lycoming Bakery.
They also offer Oropallo Extra Virgin Olive Oil, imported from Naples, Italy.
"The family has had an olive grove in their history for seven generations; they’ve been making olive oil. But two generations ago, they started expanding and growing. Then just recently, they started exporting to America. We were one of the first people to be able to taste it and then start importing it, which has been amazing. It’s very, very, very rich, yet light. It is one of the best extra virgin olive oils. It’s noticeably different, it is noticeably better than anything I've ever had here in America," Alivia said.
Tag's is also available for catering and events.
"We also have been catering both on premises and off premises," Aldo said. "We've done a few weddings, funeral services, family reunions, graduation parties," Alivia added.
For updates and weekly specials follow Tag's Take Out on Facebook at www.facebook.com/TagsTakeOut or find their website at www.tagstakeout.com.