Nonna’s Place
We are always looking for fantastic Italian import stores. Why? Well, DoubleC is Italian – 100% Italian although born in America. He is technically a first-generation American Italian – which is funny to me because most first gen. immigrants I meet of Italian descent are at least a generation (or more!) older than he is. But he was the baby of the baby and so, here he is – born American, raised Italian – in Chicago. Italian mother, grandmother, aunts and cousins all growing up on the same road and even more in the neighborhood. Speaking Italian, cooking Italian, making wine and sausages in the basement, marrying other Italians. The real deal.
So, whenever we are out and about on our travels, we are pretty much in constant need of a stock-up on Italian goodies to eat, drink and cook if we haven’t been through Chicago recently. And it was much the same when we lived in North Carolina, so we were thrilled when we originally found Capri Flavors. We were a bit nervous that it would be gone by the time we returned more than ten years later and although it was in a different location, we were happy to see it was still around! We popped in to check out the cheese section because our previous supply from the plain-old-grocery-store was awful and flavorless. We happily picked out cheese, sauce and wine in a matter of just a few minutes – although it would be easy to peruse the shelves for much much longer.
They not only have shelved goods and cold cases of cheese and deli meat, but a whole frozen section of fresh, chef-made sauces, pasta, pizzas and the like. They also have a deli counter where you can get freshly made sandwiches and some Italian salads and meatballs, etc. Their wine section is pretty good for being all Italian, but when I looked through the shelves for some of my favorites that we found in Italy I didn’t find any of them – there are just so many Italian wines – I wasn’t really expecting to find them. But I had been hopeful since I am not personally a fan of the fruit wines that North Carolina specializes in (too sweet for me!). The biggest thing missing was the old Nonna who used to sit in the corner and watch people come and go. Every weekend she would host a cooking class. She had passed away since we were last there, but there was still a photo of her up and they were keeping her Italian spirit going. We were so happy to see it all and for our tasty cheese!
punkTREKS 