La Cantina Sociale

Most stores announce their retail mission the moment you walk through their doors.  Not so La Cantina Sociale.  Set foot inside and it’s obvious that the little shop on Bannock and 8^th is a wine store.  Turn a corner and you are in a specialty market.  But wait…keep walking and you are in a little café…or is it a wine tasting room?  Confused? Owner Giuseppe Veneziano will be happy to explain.  He’s just trying to connect you with the food he grew up cooking with his mama in the Sicilian town of Motta San Anastasia.

“The sign says ‘wine shop’, but it really depends on what you’re hungry for,” Giuseppe explains.  “ If you have an interest in food, I have an extensive knowledge about the food I grew up with.  If you have a question about wine, I have an extensive knowledge of Italian wine as well.  La Cantina Sociale is not just a specialty market, but a place where you can learn about original Italian dishes and the kinds of wine they should be paired with.”

Born and raised in Sicily, Giuseppe’s culinary passion has roots that run deep in the vineyards around Mt. Etna.  His family owned nearly 30 acres of vines whose origins stretched back to antiquity.  “My grandfather, according to custom, gave me my first glass of wine at the age of three, and my mom taught me to cook before I learned to walk.”

Sicily made a great culinary classroom.  As a region with some 50 dialects, it is also home to a wide variety of food traditions, and as Giuseppe describes it, “it’s a culture that loves to communicate with food.”  Giuseppe set about becoming fluent in that language by working in a restaurant in Sicily under a master chef, eventually running the restaurant himself.

It is, in fact, his “take no prisoners” attitude toward the food he grew up with that strikes you about Giuseppe within the first few minutes of chatting him up about food and wine.  And Giuseppe admits to being a bit defensive where Italian cooking is concerned.

Guiseppe came to Idaho in 1993 as the result of “chasing a skirt.”  This particular skirt happened to belong to his wife of 16 years, whom he met in 1986 when she was stationed in Italy while serving in the U.S. Navy.  They married in 1992 and settled in her hometown of Boise a year later.  He opened his first Italian market on Cole and Ustick in 2005, but soon decided that downtown Boise would make a better environment for his culinary mission: introducing the City of Trees to traditional Italian cooking without modification or compromise.

It is, in fact, his “take no prisoners” attitude toward the food he grew up with that strikes you about Giuseppe within the first few minutes of chatting him up about food and wine.  And he admits to being a bit defensive where Italian cooking isconcerned.  “This country tries to improve everything, but my attitude is ‘if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it.’  Being a traditional, a native, and a chef, I refuse to compromise on home recipes that have been carried on for generations.”

But one man’s “prickly” is another man’s “passion” – and the fastest way to connect with Giuseppe’s passion for Italian cuisine is to ask him a question about wine.

With an estimated 150-200 cases of wine in his shop (95 percent of these being of Italian origin), one might wonder just where to begin the conversation.  Notsurprisingly, Giuseppe has an opinion on this as well: “Tell me about a wine you considered a knock-out and I’ll pull something that I think will equal or surpass it.”  Noticing that he carried some wines from a favorite winery, I threw down the gauntlet on the Napa Cellars cabernet sauvignon.  Without hesitation, Giuseppe pulled out a couple of bottles of old country vino that he staunchly maintained could  “outrun Napa Cellars for taste, longevity, fruits, and finish.”

“To exceed a big cab, I can offer you a varietal that needs a knife to cut through it, but with spices and a finish that is far longer than any cab,” Giuseppe says.  “Take a sip of this and you’ll be tasting it for hours.”  He goes on to suggest pairing it with a grilled steak or a bolito – a steak or a roast simmered in wine, then sliced and prepared on the grill like a prime rib.  Giuseppe then briefly introduced me to some of the wines from his hometown of Motta San Anastasia, adding “if you haven’t acquainted yourself with some of these Sicilian wines, you really should let me give you a tour.”

The most immediate way to connect with the culinary possibilities that line the shelves of La Cantina Sociale is to simply come in with a dinner dilemma.

Giuseppe gets down to business

Culinary tours are also available through private events that Giuseppe hosts once ortwice a month at La Cantina Sociale.  These events are designed to “introduce people to original recipes” by special invitation.  “I make sure that everyone who comes in tastes something original.”  At a recent culinary soiree, 14 of Giuseppe’s guests devoured 20 pounds of lasagna bolognese from an old family recipe.

The most immediate way to connect with the culinary possibilities that line the shelves of La Cantina Sociale is to simply come in with a dinner dilemma.  In my case, it was to put on a meal that would resemble something Mama Veneziano might have set in front of me in Motta San Anastasia – in under 20 minutes!  Under Giuseppe’s guidance, my shopping basket was full in a matter of minutes, and I had my marching orders.

“Put some water on to boil and start with a little bruschetta with some of the capponata (eggplant appetizer) that we carry.  Take this bottle of white clam sauce and add it to a basic tomato and garlic sauce.  All of our sauces are natural, with no preservatives beyond pure olive oil and sea salt, and all use fresh Sicilian tomatoes – then be sure you use one of our fresh semolina pastas.  I’d pair the dish with a Berbera wine, or something else on the soft side but with a huge flavor.  For dessert I’d go with one of several dessert wines and one of our Italian cookies with just a little marscapone spread on it.”

Heading out the door with visions of culinary glory, I reflected on my original question about the retail mission of La Cantina Sociale.  The answer should by now be clear: walk in an Italian cuisine neophyte, walk out a kitchen cognoscenti that would make Mama Veneziano proud.  If that isn’t a worthy goal, tell me what is.