I am continually on the lookout for the sort of mom-and-pop establishments that can become personal favorites and that now, with this blog, I can share with you. But on this day all I was looking for was a place close to work where I could grab some lunch.
What I found, around the corner from my employer in West Warwick, RI, was one of the best discoveries I've ever made - as well as a reaffirmation of why I go looking in the first place. The day I made my first visit to Tutto Italiano I didn't really have the time to venture far from work to patronize any of my favorite haunts. Besides, it had been a long and monotonous morning, and I was in need of a little adventure.
The place didn't look much different than it had when it was Riccotti's, but where a counter had been there now were two display cases. One was filled with a variety of cold-cuts and cheeses. The other held trays of prepared entrees like veal and eggplant Parmesan, escarole soup and meatballs in marinara sauce. I chose a grinder (that's sub to you) of veal and peas. This was a dish I'd never seen before, and it sure looked good - good enough that I ignored the fact I'd sworn off veal.
I grabbed a drink from the cooler and placed it on the case as I stood waiting for my sandwich.
"Go sit down. We'll bring it to you," the guy making my sandwich said in a thick Italian accent.
"You want some money now?" I asked.
"You eat yet?" Came the reply. "You don't pay until you eat."
I ate. The veal and peas were phenomenal, the bread just as good. As I devoured it, the man who'd made my sandwich came around and offered cookies to everyone, explaining, "These are wine biscuits."
Let me tell you, wine biscuits are good. Mine proved the perfect ending to my meal. I'd found a new place for lunch that zoomed to the top of my lunchtime charts. By my third visit, I was singing the praises of Tutto Italiano. I met my wife there for lunch. We had the spinach pies. She loved the wine biscuits; now I pick some up every time I go there. The great food turned out to be only half the story. The folks at Tutto Italiano were great as well. A free treat seemed to come with every meal. I'd pay for my food, figuring how much I owed. It might be eleven or twelve bucks.
"Gimme ten dollars," I'd be told.
One time I admitted I didn't know what to have. The steak and onions were suggested. The steak was thick and tender. The sauteed onions were infused with mild garlic flavor. Wow. Who were these guys?
The number-one guy is owner Sisto Grillo. I sat down to chat with him recently and learned that his new business hardly is a new adventure for him.
"I do this all my life," he told me.
He'd grown up in the village of Alife in the central-Italian province of Caserta, where his father owned a bar for 30 years. Sisto himself had more than a quarter-century running the Italian Deli Roma on Providence's Federal Hill, an Italian enclave that has some of the finest Italian restaurants in the country. Then two years ago he sold the successful business and retired. That didn't last long.
"I saw the empty store here and I figured 'What the heck?' So I started a smaller version of Roma."
Tutto Italiano proved the perfect name for his new deli, it translating into "Everything Italian." Sisto calls it a specialty gourmet-deli. He is doing a solid lunch-business but also offers a wide variety of Italian specialties such as pasta, cookies and other imported packaged foods as well as high-quality meats and cheeses and their own fresh-baked pastries.
"The products are good, fresh," he says. "We cook and bake everything every day." Even the bread is fresh-baked.
Sisto says his prepared entrees are among their best products. I'd second that. Yes, the quality of the ingredients they use is first-class, what you might expect in a four-star restaurant. But it's more than that. These folks are magicians with seasoning. The Eggplant Parm simply is the best I've ever tasted, and this is one of my favorite dishes. You could make a satisfying meal just from their roasted potatoes. And a roasted chicken-leg, delicately seasoned, has more meat on it than half a "rotisserie" pigeon from those franchised places.
"We try to do the best for our customers," says Sisto. "It's my passion to do this. The people here are great people. West Warwick is a nice place to do business."
Passion was the word that caught my ear. Try to define what we look for in these businesses we search out, or try to explain it to your friends. If one word can describe what we're looking for, well, passion does it as well as anything.
Tutto Italiano is at 250 Cowesset Avenue, Route 3, in West Warwick, RI.
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