A new 9th Street mural honors the founders of Connie’s Ric Rac

When Frankie and Joe Tartaglia opened Connie’s Ric Rac club in the Italian Market in 2006, it was a twist on the family business. Their father had long operated a fruit stand in the market, but the boys weren’t interested in hucking produce.

The Ric Rac club would be their stand. The performance space they created together became a grungy, glorious haven for South Philly musicians and artists nestled amid Ninth Street storefronts and grocery stalls.

And then they were gone.

First, Joe, a filmmaker, musician, and father of three, who died in 2013 at age 44, from an aggressive form of brain cancer. Then, Frankie, 45, a comedian, writer, actor, and filmmaker, died in his sleep from heart failure in 2022, just weeks after his first major film, Not for Nothing, opened to positive reviews.

For many, the loss of the brothers and their beloved space was like a light going out in the iconic market.

Now the brothers will tower above the market.

A soon-to-be-completed mural of the Tartaglias will decorate the Ninth Street building that once housed the Ric Rac (and is now home to the Casa Mexico restaurant). It comes as part of the Our Market public art project, which celebrates diverse stories of market merchants and neighbors. The mural will officially be unveiled Oct. 26, said Michelle Angela Ortiz, creator and lead artist of Our Market, a partnership with the William Penn Foundation and Mural Arts Philadelphia.

For inspiration, Ortiz, 45, a visual artist who grew up steps from Ninth Street, and Calo Rosa, 38, a South Philly artist originally from El Salvador, drew on family photos, including childhood Polaroids of Frankie and Joe posing with their mother — and one of the brothers hugging in the club, which closed in 2021. The mural also includes quotes from Frankie’s creative journals.

The public artwork is meant to honor the creative legacy the brothers left in the market where the family has worked for decades, Ortiz said. And pay tribute to a pair of market kids who became community storytellers.

“It pays homage to being a child growing up in the market,” she said. “There’s a connection there.”

Joseph Frank Tartaglia and his younger brother, Frank Joseph Tartaglia, knew early on that they would need a bigger stage than the family fruit stand.

By 15, Frankie had appeared in an HBO kids comedian contest, and won the $10,000 grand prize on America’s Funniest People, performing a song from his comedy album. Still in his teens, he wrote for the MTV comedy show Squirt TV. In 1998, Frankie and Joe made an independent movie together: Punctuality, which was filmed in South Philly.

Connie’s Ric Rac, named after a knickknack shop their mother once operated in the space, was a chance for Frankie and Joe to chase their dreams, while helping others to do the same. They built a stage and bar and threw open the doors — then watched as the club became a public living room for local artists. On any given night, the Ric Rac could host a punk show, art installation, or comedy troupe. Rising stars, like Philly singer-songwriter Amos Lee, became regular performers. Comedian Hannibal Buress dropped in to tell jokes with Frankie. Most nights, the spark was found in whatever ragtag group of aspiring artists happened to take the cramped stage.

“It was a magical time,” said Peter Pelullo, who co-owned the Ric Rac with Frankie and Joe, his best friends. “It was just this feeling that anything could happen — you never knew who was going to walk through the door.”

When the brothers weren’t on stage themselves, they often decamped to a table, and over rounds of cards colorfully spitballed ideas, like a stage rendition of the movie Goodfellas (which made it all the way through casting calls). They were remembered as unflagging supporters of others choosing to live an artistic life.

“The spirit and energy Frankie and Joe brought was electric,” said Pelullo, through tears. “Irreplaceable.”

Ortiz, an artist and educator who has worked on public art projects around the globe, said she was drawn to the Tartaglias as neighborhood storytellers.

“They brought other people together,” she said.

Not for Nothing, a gritty crime tale directed and written by Frankie and Tim Dowlin, and starring Philly native Mark Webber, was hailed for its South Philly authenticity and emotion. The 2022 film has since been picked up by a distribution company. Pelullo, who executive produced the movie, said he hopes it’ll release by the end of the year.

While researching the mural, Ortiz and Rosa met with Connie and Joe Tartaglia Sr. at the family’s South Philly home. They sat amid the paintings that Connie, a talented artist herself, has made of the sons she has lost. They found a passage in Frankie’s journal that captured his sweet, supportive way.

“Be a friend to me and I will find myself in you and you will find yourself in me,” it read.

Rosa recalled the first time he visited Connie’s Ric Rac as a young artist. Dropping in to catch a band from El Salvador, he found community at the Ric Rac, he said.

“I thought, ‘This is so special,’” he remembered.

Now, he honors that memory.

“So many people were touched by this place and this family,” he said. “I feel honored to commemorate that legacy.”