Vince Emmanuel can’t stay away. “I’ve never found Italian bread like my mother made – except at Orsi’s Bakery. Orsi’s makes original Italian bread. If you’re Italian, you know what I mean.” Originally just a bakery when Alfonso Orsi opened for business at Sixth and Pacific Streets in Omaha a century ago, Orsi’s Italian Bakery and Pizzeria has diversified and stands solitarily as an icon in the Little Italy neighborhood.

Emmanuel and his wife, Toni, have been regulars for nearly five decades. They used to walk to the store several times a week; now they drive. Emmanuel’s shopping list illustrates how Orsi’s has expanded. Bread is a given, he says, but he’s also apt to buy salami and pepperoni sticks from the deli, biscotti, Romano and provolone cheese, and pumpkin seeds. “You can’t get out of there with just one item.”