Rafaela Prifti/
Third generation Albanian Americans, Craig and Richard Nichio are owners of the Crown Cafe on Madison Avenue, Bridgeport. The Deli and Meat Market is a favorite spot for the locals. Sitting down with Vatra’s Treasurer Besim Malota, Craig takes a trip down memory lane back to the days of the Crown Budget which closed and reopened in 2019. “Interestingly,” he says, “the Albanians of my grandparent’s generation in this area got into the grocery business, the Greeks got into the diners, and the Italians in construction. My cousin, on my father’s side, Louis Theotis, came here even earlier, and he was very wealthy. He brought with him a lot of Albanians before communism seized power in Albania. He started a warehouse – a grocery warehouse in Bridgeport – with my great grandfather, his name was Atham, Pete Atham. His cousin owned a restaurant in Boston years ago. My grandfather said “Let’s put all our money together and make it bigger.” They got hang up on the percentage numbers whereas in the long run, everybody was going to profit. Because they couldn’t get it, they all broke away. “That’s what killed the Albanians entrepreneurship in this area.”
Since Crown Budget Market was owned by Albanians who were partners of the warehouse and shareholders, they would get a good discount directly from the suppliers and pass it down to patron members of the club. Craig has heard first-hand accounts of the hardships of the first generation of Nichios who crossed the ocean. His grandfather was the only one out of seven children, six of them girls, who got out of Korça, Albania, while the rest stayed there. After grandparents died, the family lost contact with the cousins over here.
Despite not knowing any English and speaking only Albanian, Craig’s father worked three jobs. Grandfather and five other Albanian fellows got together and rented a room in Bridgeport. They all saved up money to buy one car. Every week, they would take turns driving to their jobs and getting dropped off but on other days my grandfather had to walk to work.”
His grandfather would tell Craig a story that stuck with him because it revealed his character and strong will. “He would get his coffee every morning from a local coffee shop. Because my grandfather loved sugar, he used to pour almost half the container of sugar in the cup. One day, after putting the sugar in, he started drinking it and realized it was salt. Sensing that he had been pranked, he drank the whole thing, as if it made no difference and walked out of there. When he went in the next day, it was back to sugar. Apparently the coffee owners did it on purpose because he was using too much sugar.”
Church – Craig used to be in a basketball league at church but everyone played basketball at the Greek church because it had a court. “All the Orthodox churches had their kids playing basketball. Steve Cakuli, my grandfather’s best friend that came over from the old country wanted to teach Albanian in the church to all of the kids in the hall. But by that time, there were only two three of us in the class,” Craig recalls.
Marriage and Business – Craig’s parents were introduced to each other through their fathers. “My father’s father was a store manager for his cousin. And my mother’s father owned his own store on Park Ave. For a wedding gift, my grandfather bought his new son-in-law this store so that my father would provide for his daughter. Both mom and dad worked in this store. Eventually in 1982, my father had enough capital to buy the Plaza, so my family owns this whole building. Last month, in December 2024, the Nichio family announced the transition to Nick’s dinner on social media. The hardest part of it for Craig is “missing the patrons, with whom you get close over the years.”
Family and Tradition – Craig recalls that when he was a kid his mother’s grandmother was still alive. She lived to the age of 110. Craig used to speak Albanian to his great-grandmother because it was the only language she knew. “When I came to my grandmother’s house, I had to speak to her in Albanian. I was her favorite grandson. She used to kiss me. One time I asked her, “How do you live so long, grandma?” She said: “I never went to the doctor, and I never took medicine.” But she did make her own in the kitchen,” says Craig with a smile. He even remembers how great grandma used to call them “pulka e nënës,” – “little chickens”. By the time, Craig was of age, “his parents were Americanized” and there was no talk of “marrying an Albanian” in the way his parents were married. As far as traditional Albanian dishes, Craig has seen his mother make “musaka” and “lakror” from scratch at home. He not only recalls but says with ease, “qofte me qepë” and “kokëqingji” which were his favorite Easter table food growing up in Bridgeport.
The cozy Café used to offer breakfast and lunch food items listed on a big board above the counter, as old Bridgeport, silent but present, looked on from the black and white photos of “the memory wall” by the entrance. About three years ago, Craig’s brother, Richard, bought the Albanian flag for the store in honor of their heritage and it caught Besim Malota’s eye. That’s how our story started here. As the saying goes, life is rooted in new beginnings.