Post-World War II, a wave of Italian migrants sailed to our shores in search of a better life. They found it. And made Australia all the better. The enterprising among them opened delis where they imported products from home that challenged the meat-and-three-veg status quo and have now become intrinsically linked to our food culture. But it took some time. Melbourne restaurateur Anthony Scutella, whose parents migrated from Reggio Calabria after the war, remembers the kitchen-table initiations. “My dad loved entertaining his Australian friends with all this food they had no idea about: cured meats, cheeses, olives and oil, even great dried pasta. It was a regular thing at our place, showing off the culture. And connecting, which is what it’s all about.”
Now, that connection is sturdier than ever. Melburnians bask in the of-another-era quality of longstanding Italian delis that feel transplanted straight from the homeland, their owners carrying on legacies forged centuries ago. Meanwhile, a new guard of operators is building on tradition with delis that zero in on speciality and even locally made products. And the boom of new-age sandwich delis is showing no signs of slowing, proving just how much of a chokehold Italian culture has on what we love to eat today. A similar obsession with all-things Italian led Scutella on a year-long pilgrimage from the country’s heel to toe in 2008. He and wife Alison Foley fell hard for the region of Piemonte and the following year opened a restaurant inspired by it, Scopri, in Melbourne. Already edging towards institution status, it’s got a timeless quality that belies its 14 years. While the white tablecloths are stiff, the service is anything but. Chaotic charm abounds, the barolo is free-flowing and the agnolotti del plin, unimpeachable. On a rare morning away from the restaurant, Scutella leads us on a tour of five of his favourite delis – from ones that shaped his childhood, to others he visits weekly.
Mediterranean Wholesalers
482 Sydney Rd, Brunswick VIC 3056
This isn’t just one continental food store to rule them all – it’s a tourist attraction. As nonni take their time trolling through the metres-long, front-and-centre pasta aisle, 250-plus varieties meticulously displayed, younger gens take out their phones and snap away. The scale is unreal. Beneath soaring ceilings are rows and rows of tinned and jarred delights, a deli, a bakery, an espresso bar, and cooking and cleaning essentials. “It’s like walking into a supermarket in Italy,” says Scutella. “A real time capsule,” which opened in its current location in 1977, shifting from a smaller shopfront down the road. “As a kid, I’d catch the tram down here with my mum, fill up two trolleys and then we’d have to lug it all home,” Scutella says. “Value – that’s why the big shop happened here. It was really well-priced then and it still is, also because [you can buy in] bulk.”
Burnt into his memory is the wall of piled-up Parmigiano Reggiano wheels in the deli, since replaced with a reduced number of replicas. (“We had maybe $100,000 worth,” says operator Andrew Madafferi, who, in true Italian fashion, goes way back with Scutella. “His uncle and my dad were from the same village in Italy,” Madafferi says.) Back in the day, says Scutella, “We’d line up [for the deli] next to the baccalà – salted cod – which is still in the exact same spot. We’d always get some. And definitely mortadella. We’d go crazy on it… I still order the way my mum used to: ‘letto’ is how they describe 100 grams in Italian. You say how many ‘letto’.” His brand of choice? “Princi. A classic.”
“I also remember the ricotta was so fresh it was still warm, and it hadn’t even gone in the fridge,” Scutella adds, picking up a container off the counter. Nothing’s changed. It comes direct from the factory of Thomastown cheesemaker Floridia every morning.
Maria’s Coffee House and Deli
793 Nicholson St, Carlton North VIC 3054
If Mediterranean Wholesalers was the deli that defined Scutella’s childhood, Maria’s did the same for his young adulthood, as he set out on deli deep-dives of his own. It’s only five minutes up Nicholson Street, the north-side thoroughfare also home to Scopri. Namesake Maria Di Ianni opened the deli with her husband Sabatino in 1978. More than four decades later, “We’re still here!” Sabatino exclaims, peering over a countertop basil plant, as Scutella slips into Italian to ask how business is going “Still steady,” he says. “We’ve got lots of new customers now; most of the older ones are resting in peace.”
But all Italianisms are not lost. “Let me see the thickness!” one elderly Italian customer yells as Sabatino slices her prosciutto. He shows her. She approves. Scutella laughs – “it’s gotta be thin, super thin,” he says. Since the 70s, when the Di Iannis brought a slice of Italy’s deli and coffee culture to a tiny space in Carlton North, they’ve extended much further into the block, creating a slimline bolthole flanked by floor-to-ceiling shelves, and added a liquor store.
I ask Scutella if he’s a Mutti man. He hesitates. “I think that’s the way to go for tomatoes.” Pasta? “Rustichella D’Abruzzo is fantastic.” Tuna? “Sirena. There’s no other option.” Surveying the fridges, Scutella says: “The buffalo mozzarella here are excellent – from That’s Amore, customers of mine, and La Vera… Sometimes a [Scopri] customer might ring us and say they want a Caprese salad, so we’ll take a special order and come just up the road to get [the mozzarella].
“And the mascarpone is just [groans]. If you want to make a tiramisu, you’re going to come here. They really care about the products they stock.”
As at any A-grade deli, all the makings of a perfect panino are at your fingertips. But at Maria’s, they’ll construct it for you, too. “You can pick up a bread roll from down one end, hand it to them and they’ll make you a panino filled with whatever you
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