Spolumbo's Fine Foods & Deli

Spolumbo’s Italian deli is an institution, and saying so is no exaggeration. In 1998, the brothers Spoletini (Tony and Tom) and Mike Palumbo opened their current location in Inglewood. In the front of the building, between walls adorned with sports jerseys, its front counter serves fresh Italian sandwiches, soups and hot daily specials. In the back, its kitchen is a federally inspected facility that manufactures its famous Italian sausages. Those are served at the deli counter on Italian buns as well as being shipped to local supermarkets. They're also featured on the ingredient lists of countless local restaurants.

Spolumbo’s sausages can be found all over Calgary, but the building at the corner of Ninth Avenue and 11th Street Southeast is home base. The 100-seat deli does business from morning until late afternoon, making everything from a simple egg salad sandwich to the Spolumbo’s special sandwich loaded with Italian cold cuts to daily soups as well as offering take-home lasagna and fresh sausages.

“When we’re super busy, I can still make a sandwich and I can still wrap a sausage,” says a grinning Tony Spoletini as he emerges from behind the front counter with a hulking pork cutlet parmegianna on focaccia bread topped with house-made tomato sauce that is his mom’s recipe. When the deli opened in 1992, down the avenue from its current location, Tony was the guy behind the counter. Now he’s the front-of-house manager.

That tight-knit Italian-Canadian family feeling pervades the place. Tony’s mom comes in to cook three days out of the week to make her eponymous meatloaf and panzerotti, among other daily specials.