Longtime Schenectady restaurateur Mamma Rosa Ferrari dies

Mamma Rosa Ferrari dances while balancing flowers on her head, and giving a thumbs up, at her grandson John Ferrari's first communion celebration.

For Mamma Rosa Ferrari, God, family and work were the three most important things in life.

Rosa Ferrari, more commonly known as “Mamma,” always wanted the Ferrari family to live together and work together. Her dream came true with Ferrari’s Ristorante in Schenectady.

“Everybody called her Mamma,” her son Joe said on Tuesday. “Everybody looked at her as being their mother. Some of them had a good life, and some of them didn’t. But they all looked forward to coming to Ferrari’s and having our mother there.”

Mamma passed away on Saturday at 91 years old. She leaves behind a big family, delicious recipes and beautiful memories.

The Ferrari family opened the Italian restaurant in Mont Pleasant on Columbus Day in 1974, a fitting day for its debut given Mamma’s love for America.

Mamma loved America so much that her favorite song was “God Bless America,” according to her three sons — Joe, Tony and Vince.

“She was a great singer,” Joe said. “If we heard her singing, we knew it was a good day. She would end with singing ‘God Bless America’ at every party and every get-together and even at the spur of the moment.”

Mamma was born in Fontechiara, Italy — about an hour from Rome — in 1924. She immigrated to the United States on Good Friday in 1948.

“The reason we remember that is because when she got to America she was so hungry and she didn’t want to eat any fish!” her grandson John said.

Mamma lived on Front Street in Schenectady and married her late husband, Francesco Ferrari, in 1952. She later lived upstairs from the restaurant.

Her sons said Francesco was the disciplinarian, while they told Mamma everything. She was a stay-at-home mom, while he worked for General Electric.

“Our mother is probably our best friend,” Joe said.

The menu at Ferrari’s Ristorante at Congress Street and Tenth Avenue includes all of Mamma’s recipes, Tony said. Mamma also had a very strong work ethic, Joe added.

Joe said Mamma was the “matriarch” of the restaurant, but she let her sons operate it as they pleased.

“My mother and father, when they came to this country, they were hardworking people,” Tony said. “It was up to us to move that forward.”

On top of her classic Italian meals and sauces, Mamma also made wine. She believed in “a whole lotta eating” and “a whole lotta drinking,” her sons said.

“Live, love, laugh and pray,” Joe said. “That was it for her. She did all of that with gusto. She didn’t hold nothing back.”

Mamma loved to sing.

“One day I was taking her home on a flight from Florida; someone had just passed away,” Vince’s wife, Carol, said. “She didn’t have her coffee and she didn’t want it. She said she wanted a chardonnay. But the stewardess said that’s only for first class. So she broke out into song about how dry she was. It was hysterical. I just had my hands on my face and couldn’t stop laughing.”

Mamma also loved to dance.

“She was wheelchair-bound for about two years,” Vince said. “She had a hip replacement. We would all take turns pushing her around in the wheelchair. She didn’t like being in the chair. She just wanted to dance. She used to dance and kick her feet up in the air.”

And Mamma loved carrying things on her head.

“In Italy you get water through the spigot from the wells,” Tony said. “You had to carry it and put these big jugs on your head and walk from the well to the house. At parties our happiest moments were when Mamma would put a bottle, can, cake, anything really, on her head.”

Tony said everybody came to see Mamma at the restaurant, and that she remembered every one of them.

“Just Friday night a friend of ours, who is retired in his 60s, came to Ferrari’s from Florida,” Tony said. “He wanted to see her. And she recognized him right away. That was the day before she died.”

Mamma used to joke that she was too old in her 90s and that God must have forgotten about her, her sons said.

“I said the devil is afraid of you and God doesn’t want you yet,” Joe said laughing. “She said enough was enough. At 91, she said she was ready to see her husband and son again.”

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 11 a.m. on Friday at St. John the Evangelist Church, followed by entombment in St. Anthony’s Cemetery. Family and friends are invited to St. John’s from 4 to 8 p.m. on Thursday to honor Mamma Rosa.

Joe, Tony and Vince said they didn’t just lose their mom this weekend. They also lost their business partner and they lost their friend.

“The most important thing for my father and mother was to own a business so we wouldn’t have to count on anyone,” Joe said. “My parents were in such hardship from being in the war in Italy to coming here and struggling. I think that was their main goal, for us boys to take care of our own business and count on each other so we wouldn’t have to count on anyone else.”