Wine partner “Salami”

For those who remember our recent Adventure in Paso Robles CA, you may remember us mentioning “Allesina”(now Alle-Pia) . We had contacted Allesina to compliment them on the salami we had had while dining at Bouna Tavola and had received an invite to take a look at facility of this relatively new producer of fine cured meats when in the area. Koala just happened to be in the area.

 Arriving at the facility Koala was greeted by Alex Pellini, the right hand man to owner Antonio Varia, Chef and Owner of “Buona Tavola” Restaurants in San Luis Obispo and Paso Robles. They have a small operation where everything is tended by hand with a meticulous focus on quality and consistency. Alex Pellini, Chef Varia’s nephew, came over from Italy in 2009 to help with the restaurants and has been instrumental over the last year in the creation and supervision of the salami production. Alex has implemented state of the art Italian environmental control systems and uses careful supervision and timing to ensure perfect taste and consistency. They use only fresh, natural pork that comes from a local supplier. No hormones or antibiotics are used. Nearly all their products are locally sourced and all are USDA inspected and approved.

It is quite the small business success story, given the economy that they have started this operation in, and the fact that an expansion is in the works due to increasing demand for their wonderful tasty salamis, is a testament to that success.

Koala was really impressed with the taste of a variety of these salamis (everyone he tasted). So a lovely appetizer ordered at a restaurant has Koala enamored with the fine culinary offerings of Antonio Varia and his crew at both his restaurants and his fine cured meats.

Koala would like to thank Alex for giving of his time and for the free sample of Finochiona salami that will be paired with some lucky wine and cheese. Oh, and maybe some lucky Kiwi. Bon appetite!

Cheers,

WineWalkabout

Kiwi and Koala

They recently changed their name from Allesina to Alle-Pia to better honor Chef Varia's mother.

New Name - Alle-Pia

Maria Pia Alle-Pia was Chef Varia's mother. We named the company Alle-Pia as a tribute to her.

"I was very close to my mother and she passed away in 2010. It was our tradition in Italy to make salami each winter with our entire family. I thought using her name would be a nice way to honor her memory."