Who doesn’t love a good sandwich? Scozzafava’s Deli is living proof that most people do — if you’ve passed this new sandwich shop on 17th Avenue S.W. any time during lunch hour since it opened, you may have seen the droves of people lining up to try one of these handheld wonders.
Owner Nick Scozzafava originally moved to Calgary from Ontario to be an electrician, and found a disturbing lack of Italian hoagies like the ones he was used to back home. Scozzafava started following what other popular sandwich shops around the country were doing and making his own sandwiches at home, even wrapping them up deli style. And eventually, he launched the first Scozzafava’s Deli pop-up at Missy’s This That two years ago. A few pop-ups later, and Scozzafava’s Deli had a well-earned following of fellow sandwich lovers.
This year, Scozzafava took the plunge into full restaurant ownership, and the response was huge. On opening day at the end of September, the restaurant sold a full weekend’s worth of ingredients within hours, despite its precalculations. The restaurant had to close for the rest of the weekend to prep back up to par.
Since then, Scozzafava’s Deli has hit its stride, still drawing lines of folks looking to grab one of these viral sandos.
The interior of Scozzafava’s Deli is simple and understated — a few tables and bar seating to eat at, black-and-white checkered flooring that matches the paper sandwich wraps and a wall of Scozzafava’s Deli-branded merch.
The menu is the same — a small and simple selection of seven sandwiches that allows the restaurant to focus on consistently pumping out quality sandwiches. The sandwiches all come on a sesame seed hoagie roll and are filled with fresh ingredients. The menu includes options like the turkey pesto (with red onion, fior de latte and seasoned with oil and vinegar) and the classic hoagie (with deli meats, shredded iceberg lettuce, red onion, tomato, and oil and vinegar). There are also a few hot sandwiches on the menu — a chicken parm, a meatball parm and an eggplant parm.
Scozzafava’s Deli is also fully licensed, offering wine by the glass or bottle, local beers (including Peroni Italian lager on tap), as well as martinis and negronis.
While the opening day hype may have died down a bit, Scozzafava’s Deli still sells out often. The restaurant gets its bread fresh daily (once it’s gone, it’s gone), so stop by early to secure your sandwich. Trust us (and the many people lining up out the door) — they’re worth the wait.
1004 17 Ave. S.W., scozzafavasdeli.com, @scozzafavasdeli