June 29th, 2011
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Author: When Sam Mele opened Sam’s Cold Cuts (now Sam’s Italian Market) at 173 W. Chew St. in the Olney section of Philly, house-made Italian sausage cost 75 cents a pound and choice meats were the order of the day. Fifty years later, almost to the day Sam’s opened on June 29, 1961, pork sausage runs for $3.99 a pound, and it’s better than ever!
According to the present co-owner, Sam’s son, Adam Mele, butchered meats “made up 80 percent of the business and the deli accounted for 20 percent. But with the addition of our meat-cutter, Tony Giammarco, we’ve come full-circle.”
True enough. The venerable market (which moved to its present location in Willow Grove in 1977), in response to customer demand, has returned to the meat-cutting business. That means that, in addition to offering a stunning array of house-made Italian breads, pastry, deli items, prepared foods and other Italian specialties, the market is now providing a generous sampling of the most sophisticated cuts of meat available today.
Giammarco, a retired meat-cutter who once managed the meat department at Genuardi’s in Maple Glen (he worked there for 34 years), said that he knew Sam Mele from his days at the Olney location.
“Yes, Sam’s family and mine became friends, so we’ve always been close,” said Giammarco. “Years later, when I moved to Willow Grove, I still patronized the business. So it’s great to be back helping my old friends.”
Although the Mele family mourned the passing of Sam in 2010, the business is still thriving under the co-direction of Adam and his younger brother, Dino.
“We’d been thinking about bringing in a meat-cutter for the past year or so,” said Dino, “and Adam finally decided to go for it when we found the right man for the job. It’s what our customers have missed and asked us about, and we always try to make them happy.”
In the six-foot-high meat case opposite the deli counter, customers will find everything from top-ground London broil, filet and Porterhouse to strip steak, chicken cutlets, boneless pork chops and brasciole. And to celebrate the store’s 50th anniversary, Sam’s is offering filets for $13.99 a pound, a savings of a dollar a pound, through the end of the summer. On Father’s Day, the market also gave out free Sam’s hats with the purchase of one T-bone or filet.
The market will also take orders for special cuts of meat with at least one day’s notice and plans to expand its beef, pork and chicken offerings this fall, when the weather turns cooler. But for now, the meat-cutting portion of the business is moving briskly. Any meats that do not sell quickly are ground into hamburgers, ravioli filling and the like for Sam’s extensive array of prepared foods.
It’s a treat watching Giammarco at work. He first trims the fat from a beautiful piece of Delmonico steak, “a favorite of Diamond Jim Brady,” he says, and then places the steak neatly in a plastic tray to be wrapped for the meat case. All the while, he talks fondly about the meat.
“Delmonico is really juicy,” he says. “When you cook it, and I prefer it rare, you cook it five minutes on each side. If no blood or juice comes out, you’ve cooked it too long. My personal favorite is Porterhouse, and Adam picks up nothing but the best.”
Giammarco got started in the business when he was 12 years old, delivering orders for a neighborhood store on his bicycle. It was like an apprenticeship, as he learned the business inside and out. By the time he was 18 or 19, he said, he was practically running the store.
After a few years of military service, he returned to the store and soon began his lengthy stint at Genuardi’s. He now cuts meats for the market every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Continued…
For a family-owned-and-operated business,” Dino points out, “Sam’s keeps its prices as competitive as possible. That’s what we’re all about. You can get it all here, and without the travel.”
Sam’s is also known for the high quality of its breads and rolls, baked fresh every day in the bakery out back. During holidays, especially Easter time, customers line up for Sam’s great breads. The bakery also provides bread and rolls for dozens of restaurants and country clubs in Montgomery County, including Scoogi’s Classic Italian, Jarrettown Hotel Italian Restaurant, Bridgets 8 West, Pistachio Grille, La Vita e Bella, Café Lombardo, Café La Fontana, Normandy Farm, Blue Bell Country Club, Plymouth Country Club, Old York Road Country Club, Joseph’s Catering and the Willow Inn, among others.
And after the store was remodeled and expanded seven years ago, Adam and Dino brought in a pastry chef and cake decorator. Currently holding down that post is Melissa Shetzline, a pastry chef for eight years now who once served in that capacity at the well-known Hornberger’s Bakery in Bensalem.
Shetzline, who started out as a counter girl at Hornberger’s but soon learned the finer points of the business from the owners, now revels in cake decorating at Sam’s. She’ll make cupcakes, half-sheet, full-sheet and two-tier cakes and will take orders for custom cakes.
She says, “I feel like an artist sometimes,” using decorations ranging from Dora the Explorer and SpongeBob SquarePants to Spider-Man and R2D2, from sand castles to baby dolls. And all you have to do is look at the assortment of Italian pastries available at Sam’s — from Italian rum cake and cannoli to fruit pies (the peach pie is to die for!) and ricotta cheesecake — to fully appreciate how much Sam’s has come to replicate a typical Italian pasticceria.
Customers also call on Sam’s for catered events of all kinds, ordering the likes of antipasto trays, pepperoni and cheese trays, stromboli trays, veggie trays, hoagie trays, seafood entrées, fruit salads and fabulous cakes, fruit pies and other Italian and other desserts.
Dino Mele is right on the mark when he says that customers “can get it all here,” including prepared foods tended to by head chef Charlie DiCarne, including meatballs and sausage, baked ziti and all manner of pastas and lasagnas, ravioli and stuffed shells, chicken entrées from Parmigiana to Marsala and much, much more.
On the eve of Sam’s 50th anniversary, even though the family is still mourning the passing of the market’s founder last year, it’s appropriate to reflect on its long-standing mission and success. It’s rare in these days of super-supermarkets and increasingly impersonal service and indifferent quality of product to find a family-owned-and-operated business that still cares about its customers, that knows most of them by name, that insists on the highest standards of excellence and that still revels in the values that infused the old ethnic neighborhoods decades ago.
Happy 50th Anniversary to Adam, Dino and their fine staff! Keep up the great work!
Sam’s Italian Market
& Bakery
3504 W. Moreland Road
Willow Grove, PA 19090 Continued…
When Sam Mele opened Sam’s Cold Cuts (now Sam’s Italian Market) at 173 W. Chew St. in the Olney section of Philly, house-made Italian sausage cost 75 cents a pound and choice meats were the order of the day. Fifty years later, almost to the day Sam’s opened on June 29, 1961, pork sausage runs for $3.99 a pound, and it’s better than ever!
According to the present co-owner, Sam’s son, Adam Mele, butchered meats “made up 80 percent of the business and the deli accounted for 20 percent. But with the addition of our meat-cutter, Tony Giammarco, we’ve come full-circle.”
True enough. The venerable market (which moved to its present location in Willow Grove in 1977), in response to customer demand, has returned to the meat-cutting business. That means that, in addition to offering a stunning array of house-made Italian breads, pastry, deli items, prepared foods and other Italian specialties, the market is now providing a generous sampling of the most sophisticated cuts of meat available today.
Giammarco, a retired meat-cutter who once managed the meat department at Genuardi’s in Maple Glen (he worked there for 34 years), said that he knew Sam Mele from his days at the Olney location.
“Yes, Sam’s family and mine became friends, so we’ve always been close,” said Giammarco. “Years later, when I moved to Willow Grove, I still patronized the business. So it’s great to be back helping my old friends.”
Although the Mele family mourned the passing of Sam in 2010, the business is still thriving under the co-direction of Adam and his younger brother, Dino.
“We’d been thinking about bringing in a meat-cutter for the past year or so,” said Dino, “and Adam finally decided to go for it when we found the right man for the job. It’s what our customers have missed and asked us about, and we always try to make them happy.”
In the six-foot-high meat case opposite the deli counter, customers will find everything from top-ground London broil, filet and Porterhouse to strip steak, chicken cutlets, boneless pork chops and brasciole. And to celebrate the store’s 50th anniversary, Sam’s is offering filets for $13.99 a pound, a savings of a dollar a pound, through the end of the summer. On Father’s Day, the market also gave out free Sam’s hats with the purchase of one T-bone or filet.
The market will also take orders for special cuts of meat with at least one day’s notice and plans to expand its beef, pork and chicken offerings this fall, when the weather turns cooler. But for now, the meat-cutting portion of the business is moving briskly. Any meats that do not sell quickly are ground into hamburgers, ravioli filling and the like for Sam’s extensive array of prepared foods.
It’s a treat watching Giammarco at work. He first trims the fat from a beautiful piece of Delmonico steak, “a favorite of Diamond Jim Brady,” he says, and then places the steak neatly in a plastic tray to be wrapped for the meat case. All the while, he talks fondly about the meat.
“Delmonico is really juicy,” he says. “When you cook it, and I prefer it rare, you cook it five minutes on each side. If no blood or juice comes out, you’ve cooked it too long. My personal favorite is Porterhouse, and Adam picks up nothing but the best.”
Giammarco got started in the business when he was 12 years old, delivering orders for a neighborhood store on his bicycle. It was like an apprenticeship, as he learned the business inside and out. By the time he was 18 or 19, he said, he was practically running the store.
After a few years of military service, he returned to the store and soon began his lengthy stint at Genuardi’s. He now cuts meats for the market every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
For a family-owned-and-operated business,” Dino points out, “Sam’s keeps its prices as competitive as possible. That’s what we’re all about. You can get it all here, and without the travel.”
Sam’s is also known for the high quality of its breads and rolls, baked fresh every day in the bakery out back. During holidays, especially Easter time, customers line up for Sam’s great breads. The bakery also provides bread and rolls for dozens of restaurants and country clubs in Montgomery County, including Scoogi’s Classic Italian, Jarrettown Hotel Italian Restaurant, Bridgets 8 West, Pistachio Grille, La Vita e Bella, Café Lombardo, Café La Fontana, Normandy Farm, Blue Bell Country Club, Plymouth Country Club, Old York Road Country Club, Joseph’s Catering and the Willow Inn, among others.
And after the store was remodeled and expanded seven years ago, Adam and Dino brought in a pastry chef and cake decorator. Currently holding down that post is Melissa Shetzline, a pastry chef for eight years now who once served in that capacity at the well-known Hornberger’s Bakery in Bensalem.
Shetzline, who started out as a counter girl at Hornberger’s but soon learned the finer points of the business from the owners, now revels in cake decorating at Sam’s. She’ll make cupcakes, half-sheet, full-sheet and two-tier cakes and will take orders for custom cakes.
She says, “I feel like an artist sometimes,” using decorations ranging from Dora the Explorer and SpongeBob SquarePants to Spider-Man and R2D2, from sand castles to baby dolls. And all you have to do is look at the assortment of Italian pastries available at Sam’s — from Italian rum cake and cannoli to fruit pies (the peach pie is to die for!) and ricotta cheesecake — to fully appreciate how much Sam’s has come to replicate a typical Italian pasticceria.
Customers also call on Sam’s for catered events of all kinds, ordering the likes of antipasto trays, pepperoni and cheese trays, stromboli trays, veggie trays, hoagie trays, seafood entrées, fruit salads and fabulous cakes, fruit pies and other Italian and other desserts.
Dino Mele is right on the mark when he says that customers “can get it all here,” including prepared foods tended to by head chef Charlie DiCarne, including meatballs and sausage, baked ziti and all manner of pastas and lasagnas, ravioli and stuffed shells, chicken entrées from Parmigiana to Marsala and much, much more.
On the eve of Sam’s 50th anniversary, even though the family is still mourning the passing of the market’s founder last year, it’s appropriate to reflect on its long-standing mission and success. It’s rare in these days of super-supermarkets and increasingly impersonal service and indifferent quality of product to find a family-owned-and-operated business that still cares about its customers, that knows most of them by name, that insists on the highest standards of excellence and that still revels in the values that infused the old ethnic neighborhoods decades ago.
Happy 50th Anniversary to Adam, Dino and their fine staff! Keep up the great work!
Sam’s Italian Market
& Bakery
3504 W. Moreland Road
Willow Grove, PA 19090
215-657-3666
HOURS:
Monday – Saturday,
8:30 a.m. – 6 p.m.;
Sunday, 8:30 a.m. – 5 p.m.
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