Surfside is getting a new Italian market and bakery. Here’s where and when it will open
Louis Leggio is an unapologetic New Yorker.
“The South is nice, but it’s too laid back for me,” Leggio said. “I’m from the hustle and bustle of big cities with millions and millions of people.”
Leggio moved to the Grand Strand 13 years ago, and he said it was hard to find places to buy things he liked to eat back home.
“I got frustrated with it,” He said. So Leggio decided to do something about it.
Roma Ray Italian Bakery & Food Market is set to open in Surfside Beach hopefully in October, Leggio said.
The market will have its own deli, including Boar’s Head cold cuts, fresh produce, bread, Italian pastas and other European flavors. Roma Ray will also export some of its foods from Europe.
“There’s just a million different things that we’re going to bring to the market here,” Leggio added.
The market is meant to give Grand Strand transplants from the Northeast a taste of home.
Roma Ray is not a restaurant, but Leggio added that the bakery will have tables for people who want to sit and eat their bagel while they take a sip of coffee.
“People want that European that northern food that they grew up on,” He said.
Leggio began promoting Roma Ray on social media and he’s received “thousands” of inquiries of interest.
While Roma Ray is a new store in the Myrtle Beach area, it too has its roots in New York. Leggio, who spent most of his career in construction, had a friend Carlos DeSousa who ran a bakery in New York with almost the same name.
“I said (Carlos), ‘You’ve got to come here, we’ll make a killing because there is really no good Italian bakery or food market for that matter,’” Leggio said.
DeSousa initially balked at the idea but eventually changed his mind. He sold his New York business and will now make breads like bagels, croissants, kaiser rolls and more with Leggio at the new Roma Ray.
“(He) took me up on my venture to open up something that is in dire dire need,” Leggio said.
New Yorker transplants have picked up on the connection between DeSousa’s old business and the soon-to-open store too, Leggio added.
“A woman called me and she said, ‘Are you the same Roma Rays from New York?” I said ‘New York is a big space they used to be located in Long Island,’” Leggio recalled. “So, she yells out ‘Ma! Dad! this was the same place used to get the bread every day.’”
Roma Ray is located at 1850 US-17 BUS next to The Old Time Pottery in Surfside Beach.
