The family restaurant Rossi’s Rosticceria was the only New York state restaurant named to Yelp’s Top 200 Restaurants for 2023. The Yelp 100 list is released at the beginning of every year.

“This is the best way,” says John Rossi as he holds a chicken cutlet over a deep fryer.

It’s another lunch rush at Rossi’s Rosticceria, with a line of customers. The almost 80-year-old immigrant from Italy said he has been cooking up his chicken cutlets since 1979.

“Couple minutes, you gotta turn it around, you check it, it’s nice, take ‘em out,” he explains.

“I’m here every morning, 9:00, 9:30. I do my chicken and my stuff my way. Just like Frank Sinatra, I did it my way,” said Rossi.

He’s laughing, holding a frier basket full of the finished product, ready for sandwiches and hungry customers.

He’s an artist in his studio, just like Sinatra. That’s why people travel far and wide to get lunch at Rossi’s. Like any artist, he plays to the crowd. Sometimes that means coming out from behind the counter with a plate of samples once an hour.

With hands reaching out to the plate of samples, customers said they are shocked at the quality in just that bite. Customers added two of “whatever he has on that plate” to their order at the register.

“It’s feels authentic in a place where you can’t normally find stuff this good. Like it feels like I’m in New York City, on the street, in a nice deli,” said Joe Mulhaupt.

Mulhaupt said he came up from Orange County, and is getting lunch with his friend, Dylan Doyle whop both said they love the oversized sandwiches. Doyle said he visits regularly, whereas it’s more of a special occasion for Mulhaupt.

“It’s authentic,” said Doyle.

There are more than 600 reviews on Yelp, averaging four and a half stars and claiming the “best deli sandwich some have ever had.” The Hudson Valley institution has garnered so much attention that it’s made appearances on several well-known social media accounts.

While John Rossi is still at Clover Street every day, his three sons run the show now, including Fabio at their alimentari location.

“The panini presses never open this high. They actually have restrictors on them that only let them open a few inches, but we took them off, otherwise we’d never be able to press our sandwiches,” said Fabio Rossi.

He’s one of three sons that run the business, hence “Rossi’s and Sons” at their alimentari location.

The three brothers grew up at the Clover Street location, still referring to it as “home” instead of their actual house. He says they would ride their Big Wheels around the store after doing homework, while their parents focused on serving customers. Now, the operation has grown, while staying true to their authentic Italian fare.

Clover Street is able to run at the capacity it does thanks to the alimentari, or market. That’s where the real magic happens. Every day, 24 hours a day, they’re recreating authentic old-world recipes in their new-world kitchen, all in an effort to feed their extended “family."

“When you make that kind of impression on people, it’s just so very satisfying. You need to be a part of people’s lives; it’s not just food. It needs to be emotional,” Fabio said. 

“I’ve had people take their pre-wedding photos in front of the store because that’s where they met,” Fabio said.

The Rossis said it’s a lifetime of work getting the respect it deserves.

“The way he lived his life was, he would make sure you were fed before he figured out if you had your wallet that day. It didn’t matter,” Fabio said. 

And that still rings true today. The oversized sandwiches and sample handouts while they’re working speak to that.

“It was never about the money; he would make sure you were fed and left happy and then you’d come back another day,” Fabio said.

Almost 45 years later, they have return customers that are more like family, and the occasional new face that found them by word of mouth, or Yelp review.

“He’s just so proud, he could never imagine that this would happen. When he came here, he was that same song you hear about. A 20-year-old kid with a suitcase with his life in his bag, so to see us here now with this, the size of this building and what’s going on, he’s like the unofficial mayor of Poughkeepsie,” Fabio said.