The Quintessential Neighborhood Salumeria...

deli, cafe or whatever you choose to call it. Mauricio and I have found ourselves on more than one occasion laying in bed together, late at night fantasizing about opening a perfect little neighborhood eatery. Since we both work in the food industry, opening our own specialty food store together would be a natural progression and an extension of what we already do for a living. Mauricio is a meat man with over 15 years of professional butchering and sausage making under his belt. He's a manager, certified and credentialed every which way to Sunday to manage a meat and sausage shop. As for my role, if you know me or if you've even slightly been paying attention to this blog, you know what my culinary skill set is.

So here's the synopsis, the shop/cafe/deli would be small but with enough seating for maybe 30 people including both indoor and outdoor seating if possible. Everything would be house made fresh and natural/organic with an emphasis on local, sustainable ingredients. We would offer a small constantly evolving menu for sit down eating and a large array of already prepared gourmet deli type foods such as salads, sandwiches, soups, specialty breads and pastries. Mauricio would make fresh and smoked meats, sausages, briskets, rotisserie chickens, salumi and other forms of meaty goodness. I would make cheeses, fresh pastas, pastries casseroles, pickles and other deli type offerings. We would cater for both small and large gatherings. But at the end of the day the focus would be on fresh, simple, high quality ingredients prepared lovingly without the use of shortcuts, at affordable prices. Mauricio and I both believe that eating well need not be expensive.