I had to check out Pesce’s Italian Deli after I saw a Facebook post about the new eatery. I’ve known the Pesce family for decades.
Then I saw a photo of the owner, Daniel Pesce, 54. For years, Pesce would let me sample his Italian sausage at the Italian Winterfest fundraisers.
His deli is inside The Forum office complex at 6750 Poplar. I wasn’t sure where it was, so I asked Nielsen Ferry, who was entering the building, for directions. He was very familiar with Pesce’s place. “It’s dangerous,” he told me. “Those smells get going at lunchtime.”
Pesce’s Italian Deli, which is in The Forum 1 building, is a comfortable space with six-four tops, lots of windows, two freezer cases, and a counter, where Pesce will greet you if he’s not in the kitchen.
The deli’s primary purpose is to be a place where office and business owners at The Forum, which comprises three buildings, can eat, Pesce says. But it’s also open to the public. And, Pesce says, “I just happen to know everybody in the city, luckily.”
His deli, which opened October 29th, is designed to be “a place where you can eat every meal.” That means breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Pesce partners with Sunrise Memphis (East Memphis) for breakfast items. Pesce’s pastas, risottos, sauces, and take-outs — as well as some Lucchesi’s Ravioli & Pasta Company items — are featured at dinner.
But lunch is all Pesce. “We are having a party at lunch. I’m so busy I have to go to Facebook to see who was there during the day.”
He’s not getting a lot of sleep these days since he’s usually up until 1 a.m. making sausage. “I’ve been getting two hours of sleep a night.”
Pesce sells out of his meatballs and most of his Italian sausage each day. “I can’t make this fast enough.”
A Memphis native, Pesce, who grew up in Whitehaven, has been making Italian sausage since he was 12 years old.
His father, who was born in Calizzano, Italy, cooked the “fun things” like pastas and other Italian dishes at their home. Pesce’s mom took care of the daily family meals. “They both loved to cook, and I learned to cook from both of them.”
Pesce’s dad worked at his parents’ grocery store in South Memphis while he attended law school at night. After he graduated from law school, he bought Granny’s Market with Louis “Weejie” Vescovo. He also bought the recipe for the store’s Northern Italian sausage.
Pesce began working at Granny’s Market when he was young. “I remember my dad coming in: ‘Get your ass up. You’re going to work today.’”
When he was 12, Frank Retari, who made sausage at Granny’s Market, taught him to make the Italian sausage.
Pesce began making sandwiches when he started working at Snappy Sacker Grocery Store, which his dad co-owned. He remembers a fellow employee telling him, “You’re going to have a sandwich shop one day.”
Pesce still uses the original recipe for the Italian sausage. “I have not changed the recipe whatsoever.”
He uses “100 percent” Boston butts. “Most people use pork scraps. That’s when you trim hogs and things. Pork scraps have a little meat attached.”
Pesce cuts up the Boston butt into little chunks. “You pour seasoning over it, grind it up, and then you add a little wine in there, mix it up again. And I use natural hog casings.”
I figured the seasoning ingredients were secret, but I asked him what they were anyway. “Salt and pepper,” he says, with a sly smile. That’s the only ingredients he would reveal. “It is very secret.”
When he was 19, Pesce moved from food to radio when he began working at Flinn Broadcasting. His jobs included program director for Real Sports Talk Sports 56.
Around 2015, while still at the radio station, Pesce began marketing his Pesce’s Authentic Italian Sausage. “I sold it to Lucchesi’s. High Point Pizza used it. Superlo carried it. Rizzi’s in Arlington. Billy Hardwick’s bowling alley put it on their pizzas.”
He also worked at Kirby Parkway Liquors, which was owned by his brother-in-law Chris Vescovo.
As for Pesce’s Authentic Italian Sausage, he says, “Covid knocked me out. We couldn’t get pork.”
Pesce continued to work at the liquor store until last September. He also was looking for a little place to open a deli. “I always wanted to do that.”
And, he says, “I knew it was a life thing.”
He began driving up and down Poplar Avenue near Germantown. “Nothing was reasonable.”
Pesce almost gave up. He said a prayer one night: “God, if you want this to happen, find me a shop. ’Cause I’m done. I’m giving up. If you want me to do this, find me a location.”
“The very next day,” he says, Lorrie Fisk, who owns A Beautiful You Medical Spa in The Forum, came into the liquor store to buy some champagne. She and Pesce began talking about the building complex. Just as she was getting in her car, Pesce asked her if they “happened to need a deli” at The Forum. She said they sure did. They’d had a deli, but it closed.
Pesce drove over to The Forum after he got off work at 5:30 to take a look at the space. He said, “I’ll be damned. This is exactly what I’m looking for.”
He also discovered the leasing agent’s dad was his old high school baseball and basketball coach at St. Paul Catholic School.
During my visit to Pesce’s deli, I had to try “Mi Paisan,” which is one of his most popular sandwiches. It’s made with five meats: mortadella, Volpi salami, prosciutto, capicola, and ham. He adds mayonnaise, onions, lettuce, tomatoes, and a blend of spices he calls “Flavor Dust.” He then adds an oil-and-vinegar blend to shredded lettuce on top.
Most of the sandwiches on the menu “have been in my head my whole life,” Pesce says.
He also went to “every sandwich shop” he could drive to, sampled different sandwiches, and figured out how he could improve the ones he liked.
People were in and out of the deli while I was there. I asked Pesce if all this traffic makes him think about opening a second location. “If the good Lord tells me another location is needed, I’ll do it. He found me this spot. So in the future, if I have time and I can do it, I’ll do it. It’s just too early.”
Meanwhile, surprising things are still happening to Pesce. While I was eating lunch, Pesce happened to mention that a small pipe burst on his ice machine. And, it just so happened, Jake Bainbridge, a commercial equipment repairman, was eating lunch at the table next to me. When he heard about the ice machine, Bainbridge went into the kitchen and fixed it at no charge.
That incident didn’t surprise Pesce. “It’s happened like that from day one. Too many coincidences to be a coincidence.”