There was a time during the early part of this decade when a thing called “meat butter” started popping up in food writer dispatches from around the country. I’m among those guilty of propagating it. It was the jokey way we referred to nduja, the spicy, scarlet-colored Calabrian spreadable salami that was capturing the imaginations of all those obsessed with cured meats.
Chefs are still nuts for it, though the fever has waned a bit. In the time since, the Fiasches haven’t been sitting idle. Operating as ‘Nduja Artisans, they got busy developing a line of some two dozen (and growing) cured pork and beef products in a USDA-licensed factory in near-west-suburban Franklin Park. As far as preserved meats go, it’s a pretty seductive roster, featuring firm, spicy chubs with mysterious names like manzo, cremosa, hot Napoli, and nostrano and more familiar ones like coppa, pancetta, soppressata, and finocchiona. These got out in the world too, showing up at Mariano’s and Eataly and smaller specialty shops, but now they’re amassed in their gorgeous full force at Tempesta Market, the Fiasches’ new sit-down deli and imported Italian food retail outlet in West Town on the Grand Avenue corridor. Home to one of the city’s enduring little Little Italys, it’s a neighborhood that already has several stalwart sandwich stops like Vinnie’s, Bari, and D’Amatos. So what does this upstart have to say for itself?
There’s a complementary selection of sides and salads, a few of which shouldn’t be missed. Crispy arancini conceal a hot and gooey nduja core, and Berkshire pork meatballs in marinara sauce seem to melt to the touch, while dense marinated eggplant is made almost meaty by a decades-old press owned by a Fiasche matriarch.
1372 W. Grand 312-929-2551 tempestamarket.com
