FOOD Andrew Hannon
A CUT ABOVE Building on Italian influences and a nose-to-tail butchery, Alimentari offers sandwiches, meats and more by ADDIE LADNER photography by LIZ CONDO
F
or Josh DeCarolis, a bologna sandwich isn’t that processedmeat-on-white-bread concoction most Americans envision. Rather, it’s a melt-in-yourmouth Mortadella Tagelle, made with pale-pink cured ham speckled with fat and pistachios, on bread that resembles a smaller, softer English muffin. A tagelle is essentially the Italian version of a slider, which originated in the Bologna region of Italy before making
its way west. It was DeCarolis’ go-to lunch while studying in Italy for five months at Le Vecchia Scuola Bolognese cooking school. While there, he’d frequent a medieval piazza for lunch, sampling various versions of the sandwich. “Tagelles are great because you order a few of them and get to try different things,” says DeCarolis, whose family has roots in Southern Italy. Such was the inspiration for Alimentari at Left Bank, a counter tucked in
a corner of Transfer Co. Food Hall. In Italy, an “alimentari” is essentially a convenience store, a place that offers fresh cheese, cured meats, a quick bite to eat and a few things to take home for dinner. “That was sort of the abstract inspiration for it,” says DeCarolis, who is also head chef and owner of Mother & Sons in Durham. He cooked up Alimentari along with Ross Flynn of Left Bank Butchery in Saxapahaw and Andrew Hannon, their head butcher. “We’d
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