Balducci's

Balducci's has the right ingredients to attract hungry gourmands.The chain operates half a dozen upscale specialty food stores under the Balducci's name in Connecticut, Maryland, New York,and Virginia.The markets offer such fare as fresh pasta,Wagyu beef,and imported cheeses.It also stocks prepared meals and beer and wine.Louis "Pop" Balducci opened the first Balducci's in Brooklyn in 1915 and expanded to Greenwich Village in Manhattan in 1946.In 2009 the private equity firm Irving Place Capital (formerly Bear Stearns Merchant Banking)sold six Balducci's stores to an investor group led by Jim Demme,senior advisor to the New York City-based investment firm Angelo,Gordon&Co.