The Art of Italian Delicatessens
The Germans came up with the idea of delicatessens (mid 18th century) but for some reason used a French word to name them. That French word, “délicatesse,” was itself lent from Italian delicatezza which originated from the Latin root “delicatus,” which translates to "giving pleasure, delightful, pleasing."
Who doesn’t love a little gastronomical pleasure? And no offense to the Germans or French, but the Italians have an especially excellent approach to it. It’s said that while the Roman Empire fell in 476 AD (to the Germans, coincidentally), it didn’t matter because Italian food conquered the world anyway. In the United States, for example, nearly 13% of all restaurants are Italian. They’re everywhere.
Between 1876 and 1930, 5 million immigrants flocked to America and many of them were Itals (my Italian grandmother used to refer to Italians sometimes as “Itals”). And many, if not most, of those Italians landed in New York. Delicatessens were already well established in New York, thanks to the mainly Ashkenazi Jews from Germany, but the Italians quickly got into the business, setting up expatriate versions of the delicatessens they knew from back home. The first, launched in 1893, was Maganaros on 9th Street in Manhatten, which stayed afloat until about 2012. Along the way, James Maganaro invented the new ubiquitous “Hero Sandwich” and was featured in Anthony Bordain’s show “No Reservations” in 2009.
Sorry for geeking out a bit there, but this is all serving as a preface to the trip I just took to Rochester, New York to visit my son, Nick – who’s in his second year at Rochester Institute of Technology. As an occasional side-kick on my delicatessen journey and an astute gourmand, Nick suggested that he and I go to the most famous Italian delicatessen in all of Rochester. And, oh man, i’m glad he did.
It goes without saying that New York City has the most Italian Americans of anyplace in the United States. But you might be surprised to know that Rochester is the second most popular spot for Itals in the state of New York. In fact, almost 20% of the population there is of Italian-American decent (my home country of Marin is only 9%). So when you open an Italian delicatessen in Rochester, you know there’s a very large built-in clientele of around 40,000 eaters.
Rubino’s is the most famous Italian delicatessen in the area and I want to walk you through it bit by bit – using pictures – because the experience is very much curated to give you the maximum Italian vibe. Here’s the entryway.
As you walk through the second door into the space, the symphonic smell of meats, freshly baked bread, cheese, olives, and Italian spice lifts you up by the nostrils and leads you right into the 6,000 square foot space. Wikipedia describes delicatessens as combination shops that mix grocery shopping and eating, and Rubino’s is the picture-book definition of that. The eatery part is all along the outside of the space and the shopping is on the inside.
You can’t really see this from the pictures, but the Italian paraphernalia is everywhere. They even sell t-shirts, jackets, aprons, and baby bibs with the word “Italia” or the colors of the Italian flag.
Rubino’s was started in 1958 by Sicilian immigrant Peter Rubino, who apparently didn’t know a lick of English when he landed in Rochester. After a stint working in a meat market in town, he decided to give delicatessens a shot. Over time, he spun off a bunch of other locations. He was working his tail off, sometimes until midnight. His kids joined in the fun and eventually took over the business back in the late ’70s. All but one of the other locations has since shut down.
As you walk up and down the aisles you notice that they have a lot of the same kinds of Italian food items you might find in a regular grocery store, but they tend to be more authentic and traditional and there are many many MANY more options. The pasta took up an entire aisle and included every shape you’ve ever heard of… and a few you haven’t. They offered 10 kinds of Italian sausage. The containers of spices are ginormous.
The eatery options along the outside of the store were broken up into sections manned by separate staff – Rubino’s employs A LOT of people. They have a cheesemonger section, an olive section, a bakery section, a ready-made pasta section, a coffee section, and of course, a sandwich section. It’s all just delightfully overwhelming. I found myself yearning to have a nice big, 4-chambered cow stomach to fit all of the things that I wanted to stuff down my food hole. Alas, I’m stuck with this puny little human one and could only really fit a sandwich in there.
I got the “Janice Special” (no, I have no idea who Janice is)- which was basically like a Philly cheesesteak. The toasted roll was the softest, freshest most delicious bread I think I’ve ever had. Obviously, they make them right there in the bakery. Bread is so essential to a sandwich so the Janice had a lot going for it even before they put the ingredients on it. In addition to the steak, it had banana peppers, mayo, lettuce, American cheese and something called “Bots sauce.” Overall the sandwich was a little salty, but delightful. Nick had the “Salvatore’s Sangwich,” which I think was a little disappointing for him. Here’s the Janice.
My net takeaway was that, if you’re going to do an Italian delicatessen, 1) really lean into it, 2) cater to those Italians - your future enthusiasts, and 3) get the details right.