Little Italy
Market offers welcoming place to eat, drink espresso, shop for imported goods or play bocce
by Kay West
Though the Italian Market has been open less than a week, on the Saturday night celebrating its grand opening, the store had the feel of a place that had been there forever. On the lot outside the back door, people waited patiently for their turn on one of the two bocce courts. Inside, diners sat at tables eating sandwiches or lingering over small cups of espresso, while customers examined the stock of imported goods on the shelves or lined up in front of the deli case for a quarter-pound of prosciutto or hunk of Reggiano cheese. Behind the counter, Ernesto Schiratti and Jim Africano greeted friends and patrons, who seemed one and the same.
Though my intent was to drop by for a few minutes to check it out, I left nearly two hours later with two cans of Pagliacci peeled pear tomatoes, two jars of solid dark tuna in olive oil, a pound of Valdigrano linguine, a jar of Antica Italia pizza sauce, a jar of Pagliacci pepper spread, a jar of Pagliacci olive spread, a square of lasagna, an order of stuffed grape leaves with sauce, and a half-sandwich of salami, mortadella, proscuitto and provolone on fresh-baked Italian bread. Before taking my box to the car, Schiratti threw in a bag of Amaretti cookies. Mark my words, this will happen to you too. Do not mistake The Italian Market for a quick stop.
It’s been a long time coming, if you ask Nashvillians who have longed for a place to buy freshly sliced pancetta, prosciutto and pepperoni. Africano, who came to Nashville from Chicago, and Schiratti, who emigrated from Canada, met through mutual amici when forming the Amerigo Vespucci Society. As it turned out, both were customers of Savarino Italian Pastry on Nolensville Road. When owner Corrado Savarino decided to devote his efforts to his wholesale bread business, he suggested the two take over his store. While they liked the idea of a market, they weren’t crazy about the location, so they began looking for a spot closer to town. Leaving their bank on Charlotte Pike one afternoon, they literally stumbled across the building at 411 51st Ave. N. Not only did it happen to be empty, it happened to be owned by one of Schiratti’s Sylvan Park neighbors. Schiratti gave him a call, and badabing, badaboom, three months later The Italian Market is open for business.
“Where Jim and I are from, and in lots of cities in the North, there are Italian neighborhoods, and every neighborhood has at least one corner market,” says Schiratti. “There are a lot of Italians in Nashville, but there’s not an Italian neighborhood. We wanted to open a corner market for Italians in Nashville and people who love Italian foods to gather, talk, shop, eat.”
If the opening celebration was any indication, they have succeeded. Earlier in the day, a dozen people had pushed three of the six tables together and were speaking Italian, drinking espresso and eating toasted focaccia with orange marmalade. In the rear corner of the store, a man sat in an upholstered armchair reading an Italian newspaper. There are now two aisles of shelves devoted to imported canned, boxed and bottled products, but expect that to expand as Schiratti and Africano take requests from customers. Meats and cheeses are sliced behind the bar, which is where coffee drinks are made, sandwiches assembled and hot entrées—expect three or four a day—dished out. Within the month, the lot with the bocce ball courts will be fenced, landscaped and furnished with seating, offering another reason for customers to hang around for a while.
“You know, when Italians eat, it’s all about tasting, not stuffing or racing to get done to move on to the next thing. Eating and being together is the thing,” says Schiratti. “We like to take our time, sit down, chew our food, have some wine, talk to the person across from you, talk to the person beside you, tell stories. Enjoy.”
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on September 23, 2010 at 8:02 PM
