Italian Grocery Tour

Nashville Restaurants and Food
Italian Grocery Tour
Formaggeria Corrieri
1110 Caruthers Ave.
The Italian Market
411 51st Ave North
Savarino’s Cucina
2121 Belcourt Ave.
Lazzaroli Pasta
1314 5th Ave. North
Nashville

Four years can mean a lot of change in Nashville. When we first moved here it was nearly impossible to get real Italian meats, cheeses and specialty items. Sure, Harris Teeter and some of the high end grocery stores have some stuff, but it’s pretty spotty. Much to our delight that has changed. No longer will relatives have to ship care packages from New Jersey and Connecticut. No longer will we have to fly back from Boston with $300 worth of cheese and sausage. The Italian groceries have arrived, and they each have a specialty area for products.

We make this trek each year, going to basically all of the Italian joints in Nashville to collect the ingredients for the Veggie Eater’s mega lasagnas. It’s her mom’s recipe and the ingredients are critical. We’ll show you what the Christmas lasagnas look like later this week.

We started our quest for provisions at Formaggeria Corrieri. They’re located just off 12th Avenue South, just down from Mafiaoza’s. It’s a small shop and lately they seem to be focusing their selection. Most of the Italian grocery type items, like specialty olive oils, pasta etc. are gone. They have a few things, but the focus is European cheeses and meats. They have a big selection on the board and depending on when you go those items may or may not be available. This weekend before Christmas found them out of many items we needed. We did pick up some smoked provolone and Bonnie Blue southwestern goat cheese for fun later. The sandwiches at Corrieri’s are quite good. The 10k Lira sandwich is probably the best known. It has prosciutto cotto, salame toscano, mortadella, coppa and sopressata, which topped with oil, mozz, provolone and peppers, makes for an amazing lunch. The menu items are obviously a big focus, since they have cleared out so much of the tiny space for inside tables now.

Our next stop was the Italian Market on the west side just off Charlotte and down from White Bridge Road. This was one of the first full service markets to open in town. At first it had a limited selection and a haphazard menu. If you wanted a sandwich you just pointed and chose each and every meat and cheese you wanted. Sure, you could get really creative, but it did take quite a while. The great thing is that no matter how long you have to wait this is the place to do it. The Italian Market strives for a conversational, family atmosphere. A couple of Italian clubs meet here and on any day you can find people just hanging out to chat. It’s a big space with plenty of room to spread out.

It’s been a few months since we have been here and the changes are fantastic. They have doubled their stock, adding a bunch of new imported dried pastas and other Italian specialties. The meat and cheese selection has also expanded dramatically. And thanks to a new cooler section it’s easy to peruse the cheese selection. While you are waiting for your fresh cut meat you can order from a solid menu of sandwiches, salads, panini, soups, pizzas, pastas and usually lasagna of some sort. We ordered paninis and they were wonderful. The Italian has pepperoni, sweet coppa, Genoa salami and their special olive salad topping. Grilling and pressing makes it all ooze together in spicy, rich delight. The Veggie Eater ordered the Vegetariano.

Our tour ended with baked items from Savarino’s Cucina in Hillsboro Village. They have an amazing array of cookies, biscotti, canolis, cheesecake and more. They also have fresh baked bread. Corrado Savarino was one of the Italian grocery pioneers in Nashville. He opened a bakery with his wife, Maria, in 2001. They always had great baked items but we were disappointed to find not much else, after all at the time they were the only game in town. With the new location Savarino’s has come into its own. They have variety of sandwiches and deli items, along with hot dishes for lunch each day. They have meats and cheeses available, and while not as extensive a list as the other markets, certainly enough to keep your Italian pantry supplied for a while. We picked up a loaf and a bunch of canolis to finish off our Christmas dinner.

Lazzaroli Pasta is the newest of the bunch. You may remember them from their days selling fresh pasta at the Farmer’s Market and other locations around town. They opened up a full fledged store in Germantown recently and it already has the feel of a family gathering place. The ravioli are top notch and come in a wide variety of flavors, including artichoke, gorgonzola and mushroom. They even do small batches of vegan pasta. If you’re throwing a party they have a bunch of take and bake items by the pound including baked ziti, stuffed shells and lasagna.

Meat Eater: Each of these stores has staked out its own section of town and specialty areas. Hopefully that will allow everyone to stay in business. If you need full service we would recommend The Italian Market, but making this Italian eating tour around Nashville is sure a lot of fun, and a long time coming.

Veggie Eater: OK, so I want to go on record from the get go and say I was disappointed by Corrieri’s; we started there and I nearly panicked when they were out of both fontina and provolone; the 2 essential cheeses for the lasagnas. We heard a sad tale from the Corrieri’s dude that their wholesaler only visits every 2 weeks and they ran out of most of their staple items a week ago (it goes without saying that you probably should order more stuff from the wholesaler, then). My heart was literally pounding on the way to the Italian Market; what if they, too, had no stock items left? In any case, my anxiety was baseless. The Italian Market had every single item needed (whole milk ricotta, provolone, fontina, parmigiano reggiano, pecorino romano, Italian sausage, sopressata); every time the deli guy brought me an item; I dispatched him for the next. The woman running the register told me not to worry; they were glad to keep adding on to my order. My sandwich was fabulous; best sandwich I’ve had in Nashville. Chock full of artichokes, onions, homemade olive salad. All squished together with hot fresh mozz oozing over it. I little slice of heaven. While waiting for my deli stuff and sandwiches, I perused all of the other grocery items. Eric demanded I sit down, as he was concerned bankruptcy would loom if I continued to shop. We did serious damage here, but when I priced the various items, they were competitively priced for import items. Although I was singularly obsessed with procuring stuff for lasagna’s, I must give props to Lazzaroli’s and Savarino’s as well. Some day we may share one of the funniest deli/restaurant stories ever and this event proved that the Savarino’s folks are some of the most gracious, unflappable hosts of all time.