There is a small market in Herrin, Illinois, that stands as a cornerstone of Italian flavor and tradition. Louie’s P&R has remained a community staple, navigating more than 100 years of history through various names and ownership changes in this Williamson County community with deep Italian roots. Today, its legacy rests in the hands of shop owner, Julie Christ, a Herrin native, whose connection to the shop runs deep. For Julie, the market is more than a business. It is a living connection to her Italian heritage.
“It’s a very popular, iconic market with groceries, indoor dining, deli, fresh meat market, pasta, sauces and all kinds of things,” said Julie with a smile.
A living history
“In the late 1800s, many people from Italy migrated to Herrin. Most came through St. Louis and they came for jobs,” explained Julie who notes that those immigrant families brought their own food, language, and culture to southern Illinois.
“There used to be several small markets like this in Herrin,” Julie noted. “They were literally neighborhood markets in different areas of Herrin. And we are the last one standing.
The origin of Louie’s P&R can be traced to D & R Market in the 1890s, when it opened in Herrin as a butcher shop and meat market. The store was named after the two principal stockholders, Frank Detomasi and Ernest Ruggeri. In 1950, Charlie Parigi bought a share of the market from Detomasi, which brought about a name change at the Italian deli to P & R Market. A final name change came in 1957, when Louie Gualdoni purchased the market and added his name to the mix. Today, Louie’s P&R has become so woven into the fabric of Herrin that when Julie and her husband, Aaron, purchased the business, they never considered another name change.
“People were saying we should make it Julie’s P&R as a side joke,” Julie recalled with a laugh. “But no, we will never change that, and it will always be Louie’s P&R.”
Coming home
For Julie, the purchase of Louie’s P&R was far more than a business transaction. It was a homecoming.
“I was raised in Herrin, and I have an Italian background. My mother’s maiden name was Calcaterra, and I had several aunts and uncles that are still around. The Calcaterras and the Italian heritage are very important to me. And the fact that we’re keeping this alive in town means the world to me,” Julie stressed while noting that when she married her husband in 2002, they immediately moved to St. Louis and thought they would live there forever. But Julie’s husband, Aaron, found a new career opportunity that happened to bring them back to Herrin.
“We realized that one of our favorite places in town, Louie’s P&R happened to be for sale. So, we jumped on the opportunity to buy it,” said Julie, who had never had a career in retail before taking the keys at Louie’s.
“We bought Louie’s as co-owners,” Julie said with a smile. “But I am the one running it, and it was just the most perfect job, because we have so many family and friends that supported us when we bought it.”
The community at large, however, initially viewed the purchase of Louie’s P&R with trepidation. Julie said many locals worried about the fate of their beloved deli.
“People were standing at the door the day I bought this place on December 2, 2019,” recalled Julie with a smile. “They were begging me to tell them that things were not going to change and that we were going to keep their traditions alive, and we were still going to be located in Herrin, and we were still going to be called Louie’s P&R. It really hit me hard,” Julie said with cerebral reflection. “And I knew that we had to carry this legacy forward.”
An irreplaceable taste
At the deli case at Louie’s P&R, customers can be seen looking over cured meats that do not appear at big-box grocery stores: all the ropes of handmade sausage as well as slabs of prosciutto, coppa, capocollo, and the store’s signature, Salameat, a delicacy created and sold only at Louie’s P&R.
“We are known for our handmade sausages,” Julie said. “We make them here weekly. We make what is called the Salameat, which is a very garlicky pork sausage that you cannot find anywhere else. If you Google Salameat, it will come up Louie’s P&R in Herrin.
“We also have our hot salami every single Saturday morning that brings in lines of people,” smiled Julie. “They know that every Saturday morning the doors open at eight and they can get a hot salami sandwich here.”
The day we spent at Louie’s P&R, Julie had just finished serving their beloved Italian Beef to 120 people at a Herrin Chamber of Commerce luncheon. The reach of that recipe extends well beyond the city limits of Herrin with the deli’s signature season now available on Amazon.
“We’ve kept a lot of the same items that we’ve had in the store for sale for 50 years,” Julie noted. “The Italian cookies, Italian candies, risotto, pastas, the pasta sauce. We’ve tried to keep it very consistent.”
Julie is quick to point out that consistency was a deliberate choice made the moment she and her husband took ownership.
“When my husband and I bought this place, we wanted to bring it out of the dark ages, so to speak, and add a lot of new things,” Julie explained. “But we knew we had to keep the basics that kept this place going and the most popular things that have stood the test of time.”
The Louie’s Crew
Running a place like this is not a job for the faint of heart or the faint of schedule, according to Julie.
“I am everything here,” said Julie without a trace of complaint. “I am the owner. I am the hirer, the firer, the orderer, the bookkeeper, the stocker. I do it all here. I’m pretty much a one-man show. Thank goodness for my team.”
Many of the employees who work at Louie’s P&R worked the deli counter and stocked the shelves long before Julie ever walked in as the owner.
“They know more about this place than I do. I would never be able to do this without the team I have behind me,” said Julie. “They keep track of what we need, they troubleshoot problems, and they’re able to observe and see issues that we may have coming up. They work hard for me.”
The team has even taken on a name with its own sense of pride and belonging.
“We call ourselves the Louie’s Crew,” Julie said with a laugh, “And my Louie’s Crew is up for anything. I can come up with a crazy idea or say, ‘We’re going to cater this,’ and they are all behind me. I always feel like they will support me in any new ideas we have here to make ourselves better and get ourselves out there more.”
The Louie’s Crew includes family. Even while pursuing their own dreams, Julie’s sons, Cooper and Cameron, are often seen helping at the store. Julie’s mother, Sue Calcaterra Ridgway, is also a regular face at Louie’s.
“She’s the first one here, on a daily basis,” Julie added. “There will be days you might see my cousin in here helping at the cash register, or my other cousin dropping off a delivery for me.”
If you want to see a snapshot of this Illinois community, just stand inside Louie’s P&R on a busy morning.
“Our customers span the generations,” Julie observed. “We have the older people that come in for the specialty meats and cheeses that they have had for their whole life, and then we have the kids that come in after ballgames. We have the businessmen that come in for their lunches. We have the children that come in after school to grab a soda and a salami sandwich. We have the moms that meet here and have meetings up front during the day. We have book clubs that come in. We have family reunions, class reunions. Any time there’s a class reunion in town, you can find the whole group here in the morning after the class reunion, having the hot salami sandwich.”
Among the most cherished visitors are the older members of Herrin’s Italian community. Some of whom still greet Julie and her staff in their grandparents’ language.
“They will come in and they will converse with us in Italian, and we kind of act like we know what they’re saying,” Julie said with a warm laugh. “But we have a lot of the older Italian population in Herrin that still frequent this place on a weekly basis. They come in and get their prosciutto and their coppa and their capocollo. Those people will tell us that their grandparents brought them in here, and now they are bringing their grandchildren here. Their stories are amazing to us, and we love hearing them. It’s what keeps us going.”
“On days when maybe we’re all not having the best day and someone comes in and says, ‘I moved away from here 20 years ago and I couldn’t wait to get back to get a salami sandwich, and I’ve got my grandchildren with me because my grandparents used to bring me here,’ those are the stories that stick with us,” Julie said with a loving smile. “They really make us feel like we’re doing this for a reason, and we will keep this legacy alive. This was not my story that I started, but it is the story I’m going to continue.”
Keeping it going
There is a particular kind of satisfaction that Julie describes to us when she talks about her days at Louie’s P&R.
“I love coming to work every day because people love Louie’s and I love hearing the stories about why people come in,” said Julie. “I love the person that comes in every Tuesday for lunch. I love the kids that come in every Saturday after their ball games to have their hot salami. I love that the decisions here are our own. We are not a franchise. So when my feet hit the ground, if I think of something that day I want to do or if I want to sample a product, if I want to put something on special, if I want to throw a grill out on the street corner and grill something outside. It’s our decision. We can do anything we want here.”
Julie fully understands the demands of the life she’s chosen.
“You need tough skin to be in this business,” Julie stated. “You may be the first one here, making sausages at 6 o’clock in the morning and still crunching numbers at 9 o’clock at night. It can seem like the hardest job in the world. If you put your heart and soul into it, you’re going to feel the love from the people. When we hear the stories of people that thank us for keeping this iconic place going. That is what is the most important to us.”
Julie says since buying Louie’s, it has become woven into the fabric of her family’s life just as thoroughly as it’s woven into the town’s.
“Working at Louie’s P&R has really improved our lives and made it so much fun,” observed Julie. “My kids love that their parents own Louie’s P&R. It’s definitely one of the most popular places in Herrin.”
“Louie’s P&R matters because it’s a place where a grandmother and a grandchild can come in and sit down and have a nice lunch,” Julie said. “It’s a place where you can come in and grab meat for your backyard barbecue. It’s a place where if someone passes away, you can call and say, ‘Please send something from Louie’s P&R to the home.’ We’re woven into a lot of family traditions in this town.”
Julie believes that this historic brick and mortar is much more than a food market to her community.
“I want our customers when they leave Louie’s P&R to walk out with a bag of Salameats and a jar of pasta sauce and a lot of ravioli. But more than that, I want them to walk out knowing they’ve just seen their friends in here and they’ve been able to have a community conversation with each other,” said Julie with joy in her voice. “In a place like Louie’s, you’re not just stocking shelves. You’re carrying forward a legacy that matters to thousands of people. Retail in a small town isn’t just commerce. It’s the connective tissue that holds a community together.”
