Anthony Taranto
Florida's Forgotten Coast
Florida's Forgotten Coast oral history collection includes twenty-one interviews documenting the seafood industry in Franklin County, FL, with an emphasis on Apalachicola, plus two interviews relating to tupelo honey. Original Collection Housed at Archives & Special Collections at the University of Mississippi and online at www.southernfoodways.com.
Shelley Chance
Anthony Taranto is the son of Italian immigrants. His parents, Joseph and Madeline Taranto, met in Apalachicola. In 1923 they opened their own seafood house, Taranto's Seafood, and Anthony was born nine years later. As a kid, Anthony remembers his father employing more than fifty shuckers, mostly African Americans. When he was old enough, he helped pack shrimp. They would pour the shrimp into wooden barrels, pack them with ice, and send them to New York on a train. Anthony took over his father's seafood business as an adult. But today, Taranto's Seafood is closed. Anthony retired in the late 1990s. No one else in the family wanted to take it over. The building still stands on Water Street in downtown Apalachicola, and Anthony rents the waterfront access to some commercial fishermen. The building is empty, but the story of Taranto's Seafood is still very much connected to life on the bay.
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