When you buy fresh mozzarella or any other cheeses at Di Palo's Fine Foods, there's a good chance fourth-generation owner Lou Di Palo will tell you a bit about what you are buying.

Customer Barbara Boriotti remembers coming to the shop as a young girl growing up in the neighborhood. 

"It's very friendly and just very comfortable," said Boriotti, who was buying a variety of items to bring to family on Long Island. 

For 100 years, Di Palo's has been part of the scene in Manhattan's Little Italy. Technically, it started when Lou's great-grandfather Savino Di Palo arrived in New York from southern Italy in 1903.

Seven years later, he opened a Latteria, a dairy, making fresh cheeses and selling milk too. 

In 1925, Lou's grandparents opened their own shop at Grand and Mott streets, and called it C. Di Palo after Concetta.

Lou's dad, uncle and mother would later take over, and now it's Lou, brother Sal, sister Marie and a bunch of their kids keeping the tradition alive.

"Today, we represent the food culture of the 20 regions of Italy, with all the wonderful products they have, many varieties of cheese, olive oil, pastas and of course salumi, cured and cooked meats of Italy," Di Palo said. 

The Di Palo family has grown too.

They opened a bigger store when they moved across the street, followed by an Italian wine shop next door and, more recently, a neighboring wine bar.

Lou visits Italy several times each year to see not just producers and distributors but the farmers who are part of the delicious process that brings all of these items to the store. 

"It's such an important thing to break bread with the people that make the food and bring the food here to the United States so I can share that knowledge with you as a consumer," Di Palo said. 

When asked who makes the best mozzarella cheese at Di Palo's, Lou said that honor still goes to his late father. But with a bit of a caveat. 

"He used to look at me and say, 'Yeah, you think it's so good? You had to taste grandma's mozzarella. She made unbelievable mozzarella I could never get that out of mind. I said, 'Why are you kidding me? This is so good?' I know exactly what my father means," said Di Palo. 

Lou notes that the counters at the store are about waist high. They represent a table, because customers are basically coming into an extension of the Di Palo family home, and the Di Palos are sharing the food with them, not just selling it.

Longtime customer and famed furniture designer John Mascheroni said he has been coming to the store since he was a teenager, traveling in from Queens. 

"It's amazing. It's an incredibly interesting and favorable place to come," Mascheroni said.