Vito has been with Fiesta Farms for twenty-six years. He’s the man who helps you get your gro­ceries out to the car in blaz­ing sun and freez­ing rain. He’s the guy whistling “Tiko Tiko” and “Return to Me” when you walk up to grab a cart.

Everyone knows and loves Vito so much in fact that they demanded we write a trib­ute to him on this site.

Well, we’re more than happy to oblige. Here he is folks, in his own words–

Interview with Vito Caputo

How do you feel about the peo­ple who come to Fiesta Farms?

All the reg­u­lar cus­tomers know me and they are happy when they see me. They say “Vito, can you whis­tle a song for me?” They tell me I cheer them up.

Some ask for me on my days off. I just like to look after my cus­tomers and make sure they’re happy.

People want Ontario food and the organic prod­ucts sell well. Lots of peo­ple buy organic now.

What are some of your favourite foods in the store?

Barbecue chicken from the deli, mor­tadella, salami, har­varti cheese, olives…

What about at home?

My wife’s roast chicken and gravy. I like apple pie for dessert but for Italian dessert — can­no­lis. We eat them after din­ner with espresso or capuc­cino. We had them just the other night at my mother’s. They are delicious.

When did you start to whistle?

I started whistling when I was five years old. I love to whis­tle songs for the cus­tomers. All my songs are in my mouth, some­times I don’t know what is going to come out. The kids love to hear Christmas music, but I also do Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, you name it.

Has your whistling tal­ent ever been recognized?

My wife and I went to Barbados for our hon­ey­moon and the hotel had a tal­ent show. All sorts of peo­ple with dif­fer­ent tal­ents got up. Some singing, some danc­ing. I was the last one to go up and I whis­tled some South American music. They loved it so much I per­formed it twice and I won first prize.

After peo­ple would come over to me when I was at the pool and ask me to whis­tle and take my picture.

Thank you Vito, for shar­ing your won­der­ful gift for music with every­one you meet, you cer­tainly do cheer us up.

Do you have your own Vito story? A favourite song per­haps? Please let us know in the com­ments section:

“Vito always asks how I am” John Corbett from Facebook

“Vito is Fiesta Farms. Welcoming, car­ing, helpful.…so many words I could use.” Debby Nunes from Facebook

“He always lends a hand when I’m shlep­ping boxes of magazines/food. Everyone LOVES Vito!” @edibleTORONTO from Twitter

“Vito is how we know it’s a proper clas­sic gro­cery store and not a chain. He is com­mit­ment to the small things and this changes every­thing. He is a spir­i­tual war­rior.” Erika Schweizenheimer from Facebook