You Heard It Here First      11/17/2008  

Enoteca Di Palo Won’t Be Selling Danny DeVito’s Limoncello, Thank You Very Much

After nearly 100 years in business the venerable DiPalo’s Fine Foods now has a sister business, a wine shop called Enoteca DiPalo, which opened its doors yesterday. Sam DiPalo, Luigi DiPalo’s son, took some time out from a busy week of setting up shop to talk to me about wine and the perils of last-minute holiday food shopping.
Who came up with the idea of Enoteca DiPalo?
The idea to sell wine was always in the backs of our minds. To be a complete Italian gastronomia and offer all of the fine artisan products Italy has to offer. Six years ago when we moved the shop across the street we were anticipating this space would be available. We were thinking it would take at least 10 years.

So what does enoteca mean? What can customers expect when they come into your shop?
It’s a wine shop in Italy situated amongst regional wineries. The idea is to be in some sort of collaboration with the local winemakers to promote and explain their wines. In Italy, your normal enoteca would carry only the wines produced in the area. Here in New York we’d like to represent the wine from all 20 regions.

When do you plan to break down the wall between the two stores?
The practical makeover could be completed as early as the first week of December. The holiday season is approaching and if for whatever reason there is delay with the contractor we’ve decided to hold off until after the first of January. Many of our customers make a tradition out of shopping at DiPalo’s in preparation for Thanksgiving. We want to make sure New York celebrates the joy of family and food properly. I know from my own unpleasant experience last Christmas Eve. About sixty percent of our take home order was forgotten in the store before going home. It just wasn’t the same without the cheese and salumi, and the sweets like the gianduja chocolate. So with that being said the wall is coming down on the second of January.

Do you think your great-great grandparents had any idea the DiPalo’s empire would ever grow to such vast proportions?
Not a chance.

Favorite Italian restaurants?
In the Little Italy area I like Baccaro and Peasant. When I’m in the East Village, I go to Il Bagatto.

Tell me about some of the wines you’ll be offering.
Let’s go straight to the top, Piemonte. The region’s known for skillful, innovative techniques that produce some of the world’s most flawless wines. One example is G.D. Vajra located in the town of Barolo. The Vajra family practically resurrected the credibility of the Dolcetto grape. It had been on the lower end of Piemonte’s wine production next to big wines like Barolo and Barbaresco. It was almost discarded by producers until Aldo Vajra developed his Dolcetto d’Alba from their Coste e Fassati vineyard. This Dolcetto is extraordinary. It’s a world class wine. This is also the most agreeable wine to complement any meal.

Tell me about some of the liqueurs you plan to sell? Will you be carrying Danny Devito’s Limoncello?
No, that’s definitely a novelty product. But I will have Badia Limoncello from the Amalfi Coast. It’s a real deal producer. And from Basilicata I’ll have sambuco. It’s not even closely related to sambuca. It comes from the sambuco tree, which grows wild in Basilicata. The world’s only producer of this product goes hiking in the forest with a handmade bamboo contracting arm picking the sambuco flowers off the trees. After it’s distilled it’s served cold and has a syrupy consistency and a very unique fruity/floral flavor.

How did you wind up studying in Italy?
I was on a trip buying cheese with my father. In September 2003 we went to Bra in Piemonte where they do Slow Cheese. It’s the biggest cheese trade show in the world. Worth a visit. Amongst endless streets of cheese exhibits on a hot and humid day at Slow Cheese I came across a table that had nothing to do with cheese. It was to promote this school. Turns out the girl working the table was from Brooklyn. I took this as sign.

And not just any school, but the University of Gastronomic Sciences. How do you say that in Italian?
Universita di Scienze Gastronomiche. They teach enology, viticulture, cheese microbiology. It’s a hardcore food science program. Indescribable trips around the world to learn and work with farmers to scientists. The amount of experience I gained from UNISG is priceless.

Since you studied so much, do you ever teach your old man new tricks?
That’s kinda hard to do since he knows pretty much everything. In fact that was one of the reason I went to Italy to catch up with him, otherwise I’d only be good to slice cold cuts. I definitely know more Italian than him though.

–Joe DiStefano

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