When Alex Finnerty was growing up, his grandmother Marta could often be found in the kitchen, making pasta and chicken cutlets. His grandfather Americo would be at the grill.
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Alex Finnerty has opened Marta's Market, a new Italian grab-and-go market and bar at 404 Main St., East Aurora.
“My whole life, everything has kind of revolved around food,” Finnerty said.
His grandparents taught Finnerty how to cook simple Italian food: No oregano or sugar in the red sauce. Use San Marzano tomatoes. No need for bells and whistles when you have high-quality ingredients.
Now he’s sharing his family recipes with the public with the opening of a new fast-casual Italian restaurant, bar and market called Marta’s Market in East Aurora on July 12.
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The restaurant sign has a picture of his grandmother, Francesca Marta Anna Varallo, who Finnerty said helped teach him to cook.
At Marta’s Market (404 Main St.), Finnerty will be making sandwiches with imported Italian cured meats and local bread, pasta and charcuterie, and offering on-tap European wines and local Wayland Brewing Company beers. Customers will order at the counter before finding a table inside or on the front porch.
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“I think there’s a little bit of a gap in the market for my kind of niche side of things,” Finnerty said. “We’re not necessarily a sub shop. We’re not like a sit-down Italian place. We’re kind of something in the middle.”
Finnerty renovated “every square inch” of the space, which used to house a learning center. The walls are painted denim blue with wooden accents. Floor-to-ceiling storefront windows bathe the restaurant in sunlight. The restaurant has wooden church pew seating (reclaimed, along with the wainscotting, from an East Side church) and a bookshelf filled with family photos and antique books. There are no mounted TVs to spoil the effect, but Finnerty plans to roll down a projector screen to play Bills and Sabres games, along with “Harry Potter” movies in the fall.
The menu will have hot sandwiches and cold sandwiches, stuffed with cured meats and cheeses on local focaccia bread and rolls baked by Artigiana. There also will be rotating specials with seasonal ingredients. The Morty, for example, is a cold sandwich with mortadella, pistachio cream, arugula and shaved Romano on focaccia bread. The Choripan is a hot option stacked with chorizo, chimichurri, Manchego cheese and a creamy avocado, lime and cilantro spread on an Italian roll.
There are two permanent pastas: Family Sauce, penne covered in housemade meatballs and red sauce, topped with Romano cheese and served with fresh bread, and an olive oil-based broccoli rabe pasta. Finnerty plans to offer charcuterie boards and several sides, such as a soup of the day, antipasto and hot olives. Breakfast sandwiches will be available on weekend mornings.
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Alex Finnerty has taken his lifelong passion for cooking to open Marta’s Market where he will offer sandwiches with imported Italian cured meats and pasta with a family sauce, among other items.
All sandwiches and pastas can be made gluten-free. A vegetarian caprese sandwich is on the menu, but there are no vegan options yet.
The wine is from Argentina, California, France, Germany and Italy. Other alcoholic options include local and European beers, local hard cider and mead, prosecco and mimosas. Finnerty is making his own nonalcoholic lemon and orzata (almond) Italian sodas and will also have seasonal sodas in flavors like pomegranate and peach.
In the small market portion, Finnerty will sell jars of his tomato sauce, chimichurri, roasted red peppers and marinated artichoke hearts. Pasta, DiCamillo’s bread, meatballs, local honey and Wayland beer also will be for sale.
Finnerty won’t be selling coffee at Marta’s Market. His sister, Elisabeth Finnerty, and mother, Cristina Finnerty, are opening an espresso bar inside Elisabeth’s neighboring lifestyle and wedding floral boutique, Blue Violet (408 Main St.), where they will sell pour-over coffee and espresso drinks using Tipico’s beans, as well as local baked goods.
Marta’s Market joins a block of popular businesses, such as Rosie’s Handcrafted Ice Cream and the Roycroft Campus, situated between the east and west ends of Main Street. Finnerty hopes people will walk from businesses like Bar Bill to 42 North Brewing and stop at Marta’s Market on the way. Customers could grab a beer for the trek, since East Aurora allows people to drink alcohol on the sidewalks.
Finnerty’s career so far has mostly been in solar energy, not food. Food has been his hobby and passion ever since he learned how to cook.
He named the restaurant after his grandmother, Francesca Marta Anna Varallo. Her picture is on the round sign extending from the storefront.
“It always smelled amazing in their house. There was so much life to it,” Finnerty said. “It’s kind of an homage to them and a lot of the other people I know that have taught me how to be a cook.”
404 Main St., East Aurora
Hours are from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Fridays, 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturdays and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays.
Hours are from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Fridays, 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturdays and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays.