By Rod Bacon
After a hiatus due to the untimely passing of its owner, Parillo’s Sausage is in the process of being rebranded and expanded.
The 73-year-old business was closed in January due to the inability of second-generation owner Marc Parillo to operate it because of ill health. Marc’s daughter, Marisa Rahman, officially reopened it in November and is in the process of significantly expanding its market. In the interim she sold the company’s proprietary spices online, something her father never did.
“I obviously know the recipes so I sold the spices on my own,” she said. “I built a website and sold them on Etsy and they did pretty well.”
Rahman, who is currently employed full-time as a partner/sales director for a software company, has been involved with Parillo’s Sausage since she was 10 years old. At that age she wasn’t making sausage but over the years when her father suffered a couple of heart attacks she ran the business totally on her own.
“That’s why it wasn’t hard for me to pick it up now and run with it,” she said.
The business was started in 1951 by Rahman’s grandparents, Joseph and Ruth Parillo, in their garage on Elbern Street in Saratoga. In 1971 they purchased the building at 90 Washington Street in what is now a historic district of Saratoga Springs.
The Parillo family had a sausage business in Italy and some of the recipes could have originated with them. In any case, the recipes have been modified over the years to conform to market trends. Marc, for example, completely removed the sugar from the breakfast sausage and some special spices have been made a bit more spicy.
“The recipes have definitely changed but I wouldn’t say there’s been a dramatic change,” Rahman said.
The company’s signature offerings include sweet and hot Italian links, bulk sausage, and breakfast sausage. These are complemented by their proprietary seasoning blends that have been perfected over generations.
Throughout the company’s history their commercial customers have been primarily in Saratoga and Warren counties. They provide products to seven Hannaford Supermarkets as well as restaurants and pizza parlors in the area. Longtime clients include Mama Mia’s, the Barrelhouse, West Side Sports Bar & Grill, Country Corner, Pope’s Pizza, and Pizza Etc. There are also a handful of diners in Warren County.
