The little store on Forest Grove Road that has been a neighborhood icon since the 1950s is today known as Rossi’s. Word has it the market started out as a drug store and a doughnut shop (which came first is unknown) and later became Walat’s Market, owned and operated for years by Ed and Wanda Walat.
The store is remembered for its penny candy, which attracted myriads of kids willing to walk from far and wide. Neighborhood kids would routinely be sent with a shopping list that would often include Walat’s famous lunch meat and hoagies (and sometimes cigarettes).
Walat’s was a favorite hangout of actor Michael Keaton (Michael Douglas in real life), who grew up in the Forest Grove neighborhood.
A store regular remembers, “In the ‘80s, Michael Keaton and his sister were walking out of the store as I was going in. I said, ‘Aren’t you our old newspaper boy?’ He laughed, and his sister announced, ‘Now he’s Superman!’ We all high-fived and laughed. He was just a regular Forest Grove guy!”
In its evolution, Walat’s became Guzzo’s Market and Neely’s Market, among others.
One patron recalls, “I remember when it was Joe’s Market, but the letters J-O-E were missing from the window, so we always called it the Smarket.”
Today you can still buy great hoagies and lunchmeat at Rossi’s, as well as lottery tickets, dairy products, canned goods and lots of other everyday necessities. But to many Forest Grove old-timers, it will always be thought of as Walat’s.
It will always be Walat’s. I still call it Walat’s and my husband who grew up in New Jersey knows it as Walat’s.
I live in Ohio now but grew up in the Forest Grove area. We lived on Buratti Drive. As kids we walked or rode our bicycles to Walats all the time. I went to school with Darius, we were in the band together. Walats will always be Walats to me.