A South Philadelphia tradition -- the line on Christmas Eve outside of Termini Bros. Bakery on Eighth Street -- just won't be the same without "Mr. Vince" greeting customers waiting for hours to buy biscotti, cookies, and especially cannoli.
Vincent Termini Sr., 86, whose father and uncle founded the popular bakery in 1921 and who operated it for decades, has died, the family announced Sunday on social media.
"Funny, compassionate, and endlessly generous -- Vincent Sr. was a man whose warmth filled every room he entered," the family wrote. "His quiet acts of kindness touched more lives than he ever realized, and his selflessness was simply who he was, never something he needed to announce."
" READ MORE: A brief history of Termini Bros.
Mr. Vince took over the bakery in 1976, though he worked side by side with his father, Giuseppe "Joe" Termini, until his death at age 95 in 1994. Mr. Vince's sons, Vince and Joe, took over the bakery as Mr. Vince stepped aside about five years ago.
Termini Bros. started in 1921 in a shop across the street from the current location. Joe Termini and his older brother, Gaetano, who emigrated from the Sicilian village of Enna, slept on the floor at 1514 S. Eighth St. in the early years to keep the coal ovens burning.
In 1938, the year that Mr. Vince was born, they outgrew the space and moved to 1523 S. Eighth St., selling the original store to Pete Barbaro, who ran a barbershop there for decades. Barbaro's widow sold the building back to the Terminis in the 1990s.
Mr. Vince led an expansion of the business, convincing his father to buy a delivery truck, install a walk-in refrigerator, and open satellite locations, including Reading Terminal Market.
In 2006, Mr. Vince converted the original bakery into Mr. Joe's Cafe, a restaurant and passion project named in honor of his father, where he served the South Philly Italian dishes he grew up on -- stewed tripe, braciole, hand-rolled ricotta gnocchi, and a terrific roast pork sandwich. It closed at the outset of the pandemic.
In 2022, sons Vince and Joe retooled it into Nonna & Pop's, a dessert shop, in honor of Mr. Vince and his wife, Barbara. The couple met when she got a job as a sales clerk at the bakery.
In 2018 and 2019, Mr. Vince and his sons consulted with restaurateur Michael Schulson on the creation of Giuseppe & Sons, an Italian restaurant in Center City.