| Luckily for Calgarians, the Italian community here is strong and culturally vibrant, and the community supports a disproportionate number of excellent Italian food stores scattered throughout town. The biggest and the best must be the Italian Store (5140 Skyline Way N.E.) , or Scarpone's as it's generally known, which is impossibly located near Deerfoot Mall, by the postal plant. You'll need a car and a map, but the journey only whets your appetite for what's inside.
I make the pilgrimage to Scarpone's at least four times a year, to stock up on pasta, olive oil and other staples, like chick peas and artichoke hearts. For staples, this is largely a price and selection thing – De Cecco Italian pasta, my favourite, is significantly cheaper here than anywhere else (and much cheaper than Catelli is at Safeway), and Scarpone's own label extra virgin olive oil is great quality and similarly priced. Scarpone's own label goods are available all over town, but as you'd expect, the best value and selection is from the source.
The deli is similarly a bargain, and the quality is outstanding. I frankly prefer to have deli sausage cut by an actual person in front of me, rather than a machine a week ago, and I like to taste. The deli staff are a delight – they're knowledgeable and passionate about the food they sell, and they sell a lot of it. You can get about 15 types of olives, salt-packed anchovies, octopus in oil, roasted red peppers, all sorts of Italian cheese, every salami under the sun. Additionally, every big corporate grocery store makes money on the deli. It must be at least 30 per cent cheaper to shop at Scarpone's deli than it is anywhere else.
But the real reason to go to Scarpone's is that it has so much charm. It's not quaint, by any means, but it's a traditional Italian grocery store, family-run and -owned. This means that you sometimes hear "Dad, Line 1" on the intercom. The staff will gladly answer questions about what to do with the end of a leg of prosciutto that's for sale, what cheese to use in risotto, and the difference between coppa and pancetta. There's even a little café, so you can grab a sausage on a Vienna roll, with soup and a cappuccino. It feeds the hunger and the soul.
The sign of a good food experience is how much you want to cook the food when you're at the cash register. I always walk out of Scarpone's with a big box of great food, marveling at how little it cost, how much fun it was to buy it, and how much I'm looking forward to the scent of Italy in my kitchen. |
