Elena Durante said stepping into her father’s store as a child overwhelmed her senses. Growing up in the family-run grocery business that sold everything from fine wines and olive oils to salt cod and big wheels of cheese, she described the sweet and peppery aromas of imported spices and remembers running her little fingers through barrels of dry beans.

“There were so many products here in the ’60s. You’d smell every kind of spice,” she said. “I remember my dad coming home at night in his delivery van, and you couldn’t really get the smell of Ratto’s out of it. I can’t really describe it. Think of it as cheesy, fishy, briny, umami-ish.”

Durante is the great-granddaughter of Giovanni Battista Ratto, the founder of the premier Oakland grocer, and the man behind its namesake since 1897. As a fourth-generation owner, she took over the business in 2002 from her father, Martin Durante, who had inherited Ratto’s in the ’50s from his own father, who was also named Martin Durante.

Continuing the family legacy, Elena Durante, who mostly works from home these days, said she plans to eventually retire. When that happens, Ratto’s will pass to its fifth-generation owner, Durante’s youngest son Jonas Voiron, 31, who’s worked at the deli since he was 16 years old, skateboarding up and down Washington Street.

“This is like home. I literally grew up around the corner. We lived there for over 10 years during my whole childhood through high school,” Voiron said. “So I was always here every day. This is it. It’s like my little neighborhood. I feel like I'm from a small town, and this is my small town.”

When Ratto’s first opened in the East Bay in 1897, it was located in a different building on Washington Street. And although it’s moved a couple of times in its 125-year history, the business has always remained in the Old Oakland neighborhood.

In 1936, Durante’s grandfather bought the building at 821 Washington St., which now also houses Caffe 817, a European-inspired sidewalk cafe, and District, a wine and cocktail bar right on the corner.

Left, Elena Durante's paternal grandfather, Martin Durante, stands with his son, and Elena's father, also named Martin Durante.

During the ’60s, Durante said Ratto’s became more of an international grocer known for carrying all the goods that world travelers yearned to taste once they arrived back home.

“My father always said that it was the young people who discovered Ratto’s in the ’60s. That was really the decade where air travel became affordable for a lot of people. People started traveling abroad and tasting new foods and cuisines,” she said. “If they’d gone to India, then they would come back and they would want the chutneys and curries and ghee and lots of different things. We had everything. My dad used to say, ‘The hippies put Ratto’s on the map.’”

As Ratto’s soared through the ’60s with its eclectic collection of products from Western Europe, the Middle East, Greece and beyond, Durante said she remembered the place buzzing with the different cultures of customers who shopped there for specialty items and everyday staples.

Some of the food items for sale at Ratto's International Deli & Market in Oakland, Calif., on Aug. 3, 2022.

“As a little girl, I would come in here and hear multiple different languages being spoken,” she said. “So you probably had French, Italian, Spanish, Arabic, Portuguese, lots of different languages. It was exciting for that reason alone.”

Customers enjoy their food at some outdoor seating in front of Ratto's in Oakland, Calif., on Aug. 3, 2022.

Another comforting sound that she associates with Ratto’s history is her mother’s voice. As a Juilliard-trained opera singer, Dorotea Durante opened a performance venue and lunch room in the space where District now resides.

“We started something called ‘Pasta Opera’ back in 1987, and my mom started that just to create a venue for herself, as she was about to turn 60, and she wanted to sing again,” Durante said. “She died in 1990. So she was able to sing for the final years of her life and it brought her great joy and it was really popular.”

The Pasta Opera was a Friday night institution, a place where locals immersed themselves in live opera and anticipated the pasta dinner that followed. Durante said the venue eventually started hosting Wednesday night jazz with a pianist and a rotating bill of lounge singers. That’s what Voiron recalls.

A view of the interior space of Ratto's International Deli & Market in Oakland, Calif., on Aug. 3, 2022.

“My earliest memories are that those doors were always open, and I just went running around here back and forth, just going all over the place,” Voiron said. “And then, right here, there used to be big barrels of beans and stuff and then I’d just go and run my hands through. It felt really good so I was always doing that.”

Hearing this sentiment, Durante laughed.

“I remember my dad yelling, ‘Don't mix the beans!’” she said.

Through the ’70s and ’80s, Durante said her family reinvented Ratto’s to keep up with their customer’s changing habits and tastes. As more competition opened in the area and people stopped shopping for all of their gourmet grocery needs, change was imminent. But then, Old Oakland saw a shift.

“Over the decades, it became more of a place for workers downtown to come for lunch, and to also get provisions. But it seemed like every decade we had less grocery offerings,” Durante said. “So it’s really now become a very popular deli-slash-lunch spot. That’s how we stay in business. We’re really busy for lunch.”

Customers enjoy their food at some outdoor seating in front of Ratto's in Oakland, Calif., on Aug. 3, 2022.

Nowadays, Ratto’s is best known for its delicious deli sandwiches made to order. Its top seller, the Italian combo, with a sweet-and-savory red bell pepper spread, leads the menu. The bold flavors tasted in every bite, no matter which sandwich you order, are composed of ingredients sourced from local purveyors. The soft ciabatta rolls and baguettes come from Acme and Bordenave's. The prosciutto and mortadella, as well as the good, stinky cheeses, are either from Zoe's Meats in Petaluma or Italfoods in San Francisco. And all the crisp veggies are delivered from C&L Produce near Jack London Square. A real taste of the best from the Bay Area.

“There’s also a lot of people who just come for the soup,” Voiron said. “There’s people who come early, before the soup’s even ready.”

The soup of the day is made from scratch every morning by Ratto’s longtime employees, some who’ve known Voiron since he was 5 years old. On Fridays, customers can always bet on the house clam chowder, but every day there’s always a new soup to pair with a sandwich, whether it be split pea, meatball, minestrone, farro, tomato-basil, corn chowder or broccoli cheddar. 

Durante recalls the Ratto’s sandwich counter of the past as a no-frills, straightforward service. Customers would walk up, order a mortadella and provolone for two bucks on either a sourdough, sweet or onion roll before hitting the condiment station to add mayo or mustard. Now, patrons walk in, grab an order sheet and check off whatever sandwich they’re hungry for, whether it’s a build-your-own variety, or the popular turkey and avocado.

One thing’s for certain: The Ratto’s sandwiches of yore no longer cost $2. Over the past seven months, Durante said she’s had to raise the prices twice due to the rising cost of, well, everything. If you want a meat-and-cheese sandwich, it’ll cost $11.50, which is still a reasonable price for the sheer quality of ingredients sandwiched between artisan-baked breads. And Ratto’s customers, creatures of habit, who stop by on lunch or travel from distances to get their favorite olives, come to pay the family a visit and keep the neighborhood institution busy.

“All of our bread has gone up about 20%,” she said. “And the deli meats have gone up about 15 to 16% and then the produce is up. Everything’s up. Everything.”

More changes are on the horizon for Ratto’s, but this time, it’s in the form of a complete renovation, and both Durante and Voiron are eager for it to get underway. The central island that houses the deli cases with meats, cheeses and grab-and-go items will be gone, leading to a more open floor plan. Once that’s done, the deli counter and food service line will be along the left wall from the front entrance. New lighting fixtures will brighten up the entire space, ample shelving will display all the pastas, sauces and specialty imports that people have grown to love through the years. Brand new walk-in refrigerators, kitchen equipment and a remodeled restroom are also planned new additions to come during the process.

Customers walk out of Ratto's International Deli & Market in Oakland, Calif., on Aug. 3, 2022.

The remodel is the first since Ratto’s was forced to renovate after a fire broke out in the former hotel space that operated above the store in 1974. Although some customers have expressed worry about the upcoming changes, Durante and Voiron said the space will be brighter, and it’s a necessity to update Ratto’s, once again, as it looks toward the future.

“For many generations now, Ratto’s has helped many families maintain their culinary traditions,” Durante said. “I like to think about that and how it has enhanced people’s lives. I sometimes imagine: Is it a Greek family, an Italian family, a Portuguese family, a Brazilian family, African, Spanish, French. What were their conversations like during their time at the table, which is some of the best things that families can do together, eating. I think Ratto’s has enhanced that for so many families, and that makes me proud to have stuck it out for this long.”

Ratto’s, 821 Washington St., Oakland. Open Monday through Friday, 9:30 a.m.-3:15 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m.-3:15 p.m. Closed Sunday.