"We will start a new place and serve good food. At a profit if we can, at a loss if we must, but we will serve good food."

With this short notation on a scrap of paper, Teresa Marzetti set the tone for the company that bears her name. It all began in 1896 when young Teresa Marzetti arrived in the United States from Florence, Italy, and started her small Italian restaurant in Columbus, Ohio.

Marzetti's became a local favorite especially among Ohio State University students, and grew to become a four star restaurant and one of the finest dining experiences in the Midwest.

Customers particularly enjoyed Teresa's Creamy Coleslaw and French dressings, and were often seen leaving the restaurant with bottles of their freshly made favorites. By 1955, the dressings had become so renowned that the upstairs kitchen of the restaurant became a full-scale factory. Thus the Marzetti brand of salad dressings found its way into grocery stores throughout Ohio.

After Teresa Marzetti's death in 1972, the restaurant closed forever, but her passion for quality still lives in Marzetti's many salad dressings and other specialty food products.

Today, as the Specialty Food Group of Lancaster Colony Corporation, Marzetti has plants across the United States that make an expanded family of quality food products. Each reflects Teresa Marzetti's original, handwritten pledge of excellence and "good food".

Everyday, Marzetti's quality products are found on the dinner tables of millions of consumers, as well as in well-known restaurant chains across the country, a fitting tribute to Teresa Marzetti's pioneering Columbus restaurant.

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