Hungrygrrl

I lived in Philly for 10 years and I still miss the Italian delis. Cheeses hanging from the ceiling, a wall of olive oil, barrels of olives. As you walked in you would hear, “who wanted da buffala?” and see a young italian guy holding up a hunk of mozzarella.

The day I found Salumi, the deli owned by the senior Batali, I had arrived. Homemade salami, aged provolone. It didn’t have the same feel as Philly’s DiBruno Brothers, but the food was as good.

But sadly it’s downtown, mostly open for lunch, and the lines are down the block.

Da Pino is the opposite of Salumi, the rebel brother who lives in the woods. It’s way down on Ranier Avenue, almost all the way to Columbia City. You could miss it if you drove to fast.

But there are no lines down the block, it’s open till 7pm nearly every day, and their sausages are as good as Salumi’s (if not better). When I went in the other day at 5 oclock, it was completely empty. I had to call out to find the owner, hidden behind the deli case.

The specialty here is homemade sausages, and there’s a caseful right as you walk in the door. The coppa is wonderful, layered in thick spicy paprika. I also tried the wine soaked salami which was quite good, though not so different from the salami in the grocery store. But the wild boar sausage just blew me away. It looks like a flattened sausage (see below) and has this rich peppery flavor and chewy texture, like the sausages we ate in France just a few weeks ago.

Da Pino also offers sandwiches (coppa, prosciutto, a few others) and pastas and has a few tables in the adjoining room. Everything looks so italian: the cans of lavazza, the limoncello above the bar, the case full of de cecco pasta. Such a different feel than Salumi. Here the air feels still, you can see the dust gathering on the bar stools. But it seems business has been good.

“I’m almost out of the wild boar sausage,” Pino said as I was leaving, “after that article in the paper.”

Better get there before it’s all gone.

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Da Pino
4225 Rainier Ave. S., Seattle
206-356-8502

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