DETROIT – Before Anthony Bellino leads cheers on the big screen in a blue-collar city, the Detroit Lions in-game host starts his day 40 miles south in Monroe with blue gloves.
“We are so gritty,” Bellino laughs, unpackaging raw meat and placing it onto a butcher block. Danny’s Fine Foods isn’t the first place you’d expect to find one of Detroit’s most visible and heard sports personalities, but the family business is the first workplace he’s ever known and the one that depends on him most.
“My mom jokes that at four days old, she had me in the office and that’s where it all kind of started,” Bellino recalled. “As things evolved and I got a little bit older, she would just kind of hand me off to different customers.”
His mom, Karen, is the eponymous Danny’s daughter and current owner. Anthony is one of 10 grandchildren, but the only one continuing on the family tradition since 1941.
“Scale one to ten, ten. He’s very valuable for me,” Danny Vuich Jr., Anthony’s uncle and co-owner, said.
A 10 out of 10 in value, sometimes 10 hours in a day—which makes it hard to believe Bellino can find time to do anything else. Always willing, always ready, the St. Mary’s Catholic Central alum has found a way for both his life’s callings to co-exist.
“Some doors had opened and I just kept saying yes to every possible job,” Bellino said. “There was one time I was working on the saw and I felt my phone vibrate. This was years ago. Stan Fracker was the director of game presentation for the Tigers. He says, ‘we’ve got a big problem. We have a 640 first pitch. Can you be here?’ I ask my mom, like, ‘hey, the Tigers need me, can I go?’ I immediately finished what I was doing here, hit the road, went straight to Comerica to work.”
Make no mistake: he loves what he does, but it is work.
“But that’s what I want to do, right? [Danny’s] is just kind of like what I do out of necessity and responsibility,” Bellino added.
Before the rooster calls, he’s awake at 5 a.m. hosting “Spin on Sports” on 100.9 FM, then he slides into Danny’s for at least five hours before hitting the airwaves on WJR from 6 to 7 p.m. alongside Lions legend Lomas Brown.
Besides hearing him on the radio, you can see him almost everywhere else; Ford Field, the Big House, Michigan men’s and women’s basketball games, even the occasional rep at Comerica Park and Little Caesars Arena.
It’s all for the love of the game and love of the family.
“From the radio and team aspect, that’s the career aspiration,” Bellino said. “The family grocery store, it’s a family business. My great-grandfather started it when he immigrated here and it’s very difficult right now for small businesses. There’s a Kroger a couple miles in one direction, there’s a Meijer a couple miles in the other direction, and it’s my responsibility as the last of the fourth generation that spends any time here to do it.”
Danny’s closed its second location permanently on Sunday, December 28. The original store on Elm Street is not going anywhere. Just like our teams on their toughest days, great teammates and a great fan base help to pull through.
“I think it’s in your blood,” Vuich Jr. said. “I think it’s in Anthony’s blood.”
Bellino agrees each day behind the block, where his actions speak louder ever louder than his words over the air.
“One play at a time for them, one day at a time for us. That’s how this thing keeps going, because what is the alternative, right? There really is no out in a small business. You just keep waking up every day and just keep getting after it.”
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