DJ M.
Yelp
I think I have died and I'm in Italian heaven!
This new shop is located in a very small shopping center, with only four other businesses. Roma's is fairly new and I have passed it many times over the past few months. Today, I finally broke the Italian Ice and answered to a new sign that read, buy one homemade pasta, get another free. I love free, so I pulled in. Open Mon.-Sat. 9am to 7pm and Sun. 9am-4pm. I really have been meaning to check it out and hubby has been asking why I haven't.
Once you walk in, you will find an Olive Oil display, like none I have ever seen, there must have been 40 or more different oils ranging in size and price and most brands I have never heard of, all imported of course and some more virgin than others, if you know what I mean.
You then pass a fairly large fresh produce isle, with many fresh herbs, both in pots and loose, bagged by them. Fresh fruits and veggies are available, which is a God send, since my closest grocery store is 15 minutes away.
Next they have a huge side by side, glass encased reach in refrigerator filled with every type of homemade pasta you can imagine. They make it right there in the store and their shiny new pasta machine, which is humongous, is front and center staged in their large picture window.
I glanced to my right and saw yet another large reach in, this time a freezer, filled with homemade stuffed shells, escargot, large bags of uncooked frozen snails in their shells and I could all but taste them.
Then I spotted many boxes, like gift boxes, each filled with homemade ravioli's. On the door, it gave the prices for each kind and another sign explaining that when you bought one box, you got the second for 1/2 price. Being nosey, I had to take a peek inside. The boxes are not sealed and the layer of one dozen large square raviolis were covered in a tissue paper.
There are several isles of jarred products, ranging from roasted peppers, to capers, tomatoes, to clams, both in the tiniest baby shells I have ever seen to shucked clams, sauces, pickled veggies, olives and vinegars.
Everything in this store, other than the breads, homemade pastas and many deli items, is imported. They feature Dietz & Watson for most of their deli meats and cheeses and that is supporting a Philadelphia based company.
I bought one box each of the Lobster, Cheese, Asparagus & Cheese, Spinach & Cheese, Mushroom, and the Crab raviolis. This store is 5 minutes from my house and on my way to the grocery store. I know for sure, they will be getting part of my grocery money each week.
They have cases of whole prosciutto's, huge wheels of imported cheese, huge containers of imported olives and the Italian men walk around drinking espresso from a demitasse cup and ask you if you would like one. Me, pass up an espresso? Make it a double, with one lump of sugar and a twist of lemon. Oh sugar, I'm in Italy, strange looks and no lemon twist for me.
Update, I will never buy my ravioli's anywhere else. They are delectable pillows filled to capacity with the finest cheese, meat and seafood. They have perfected the art of ravioli making.