Frank Cardullo was ten years old on April 1, 1950, when Cardullo's Gourmet Shop opened.

Though Frank has aged a little in the nearly half a century that Cardullo's has been around, the store hasn't. It still caters to its loyal Harvard Square customers, selling cups of orange ginger mint tea and Godiva chocolate creme coffee.

"My father loved this store," said Cardullo. "My mother was also very influential in shaping the store as we know it today. She had a real passion for it."

He seems to have inherited that passion.

"Food has always been in my blood and a part of my background," Cardullo said. "Everywhere I went in the world I was always looking around for it."

Before it brought him back to Cambridge, his yen for great food would follow him as he tried engineering and aviation.

He worked at the store for a while after college, but grew a little restless.

"My real background was always electrical engineering," Cardullo said. "Then I pursued a career in aviation. Flying really satisfied the gypsy in me, but I always missed Cardullo's."