By Neil Sowerby
IT won’t be long before Salvi’s returns to its old home, Unit 22B in a Corn Exchange transformed into a self-styled ‘food mecca’ with an array of rivaleateries jostling for the foodie dollar. When Maurizio Salvi first created his much-loved deli the tumbleweed was blowing around the skateboard gear shops in what was the The Triangle. That was before the recent £30m investment in the building.
Maurizio’s team have kept the Italian flag-flying with a pavement pop-up on Exchange Square, to satisfy this hack’s cravings for the sublime buffalo mozzarella Salvi’s fly in from Campania and sell in lactose-filled plastic bags lie goldfish from the fair. Their refitted cafe/shop will be substantially bigger, spilling over into the basement.
The shelves are packed the marvels of the Mezzogiorno such fried pizza, arancini, polpette, frittata, risotto, cannelloni, lasagne, focaccia, Neapolitan panini, paidina, rustici (little fried parcels with hams, ricotta and so on with fillings), calzone fritti, croquettes, eeven zeppole (fried seaweed in batter).
There are a few seats, so you can grab a glass of wine and a snack on site. The plan is to use it as an aperitivo bar at night – a similar regime at the original Salvi’s led me to miss a few trains out of Victoria, I recall.
