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Article on DiRienzo’s in today's National Post!!

Hux

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Hux

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Expensive sandwiches? Baloney!

-Ottawa grocer draws huge, hungry lunch-hour crowd

B Y PAU L V I E I R A

National Post

Nabbing a reservation at the usual lunch hot spots for Ottawa’s political power-brokers — Hy’s Steak House, Mamma Teresa and Café Henry Burger — is quite a bit easier during the summer given the good number of wheelers and dealers who desert the capital for the proverbial rest and relaxation.

But another popular lunch joint among a different group of Ottawa power-brokers is busy as usual, bursting at the seams. It doesn’t matter what time you show up in the summer, be prepared to wait in line at DiRienzo’s Grocery.

The grocer is at the corner of two nondescript residential streets about 3 1 /2 kilometres slightly southwest of Parliament Hill, in Ottawa’s Little Italy district — which is little by Toronto and Montreal standards.

Closing in on noon on summer days, a sizeable snaking lineup forms inside the narrow store, around the one central shelf that is stocked with imported Italian goods. Police officers, soldiers, landscapers, painters, paramedics, carpenters, cable repairmen, civil servants from the nearby Natural Resources Canada office and road construction crew members wait patiently for the chance to plunk down their $3.50 and sink their teeth into a thick, Italian-style sandwich that they will tell you is filling and delicious.

Best of all, they add, is the price.

They offer these glowing reviews as they sit on benches and picnic tables — some of them painted green, white and red in honour of the Italian flag — that surround a makeshift bocce court in a park across the street from DiRienzo’s.

“They are the best,” says Dick Chiarelli, an engineering consultant, as he munches on a salamiprovolone combination on a fresh bun. “They are very good and very reasonably priced.”

(His brother, Ottawa Mayor Bob Chiarelli, is also known to sneak in now and then for a sandwich.)

Gareth Davies, a summer intern at Natural Resources, was introduced to DiRienzo’s by his more senior co-workers.

“I have been coming here ever since — at least a couple times a week,” says Mr. Davies, who studies forestry at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay.

A colleague from Natural Resources, Michael Slivitzky, suggests Mr. Davies’ estimated visits are on the low end of the scale. On second thought, Mr. Davies agrees.

The sandwiches at DiRienzo’s have such acclaim in the National Capital Region that at least one local caterer serves them because they are cheaper than anything it could make from scratch.

Paul DiRienzo, with help from his brother, first opened the grocery store that bears his surname in 1983, after roughly a decade and a half working as a cook at various Ottawa restaurants. The initial goal, he says, was to make money selling basic food goods “at a little grocery store with a little bit of a deli.” Creating a sandwich hot spot that draws lunch customers from the far-flung suburbs was never on his agenda. In fact, if you listen to Mr. Di-Rienzo tell the story, the craze came about purely by accident.

About five summers ago, he recalls, a construction crew did road work in front of his store. The streets were ripped up and as a result, travel by car was limited. This meant the labourers had few, if any options, to buy a lunch nearby.

“So we started to make sandwiches for the workers over here,” he explains, “and that’s how it started.”

He charged the workers $2 apiece. They apparently liked the sandwiches so much, word spread among the local construction industry about Mr. DiRienzo’s knack for slapping together fresh meat, cheese and bread.

“And then the city guys started to come in. And then the police guys, then the ambulance, then firemen. They all started to come in for sandwiches,” Mr. DiRienzo says.

“We are really lucky. Everybody comes here.”

The routine at DiRienzo’s is that customers select a piece of bread from among the boxes of fresh buns that sit at the foot of the deli display case. They hand it over to one of the deli employees and identify which of the roughly 20 sandwiches available they want. (Among the choices are a turkey with hot capicollo; prosciutto cotto, capicollo and sopressatta Calabrese; and ham, cheese, roast beef and spicy veal.)

Mr. DiRienzo gets a little help from his family. His brother, Gerry, stands behind the deli counter and helps out on the sandwich making. And his mother helps out in the kitchen, cooking up sauces for DiRienzo’s pasta dishes, which are another lunchtime option — but not as popular as the sandwich.

He used to have three workers hustling behind the deli counter at lunch, but heavy demand has forced him to add two more.

“It’s very, very busy,” Mr. DiRienzo says of the lunchtime rush, from roughly 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., when he handles the cash register.

“I never thought it was going to be like this. It just happened.” pvieira@nationalpost.com

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Hux Newbie

Hux

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The routine at DiRienzo’s is that customers select a piece of bread from among the boxes of fresh buns that sit at the foot of the deli display case. They hand it over to one of the deli employees and identify which of the roughly 20 sandwiches available they want. (Among the choices are a turkey with hot capicollo; prosciutto cotto, capicollo and sopressatta Calabrese; and ham, cheese, roast beef and spicy veal.)

BUT, you can also go custom, and double-meat is also an option for an extra few bucks. My custom is:

Prosciutto

Provolone

Onion

Tomato

Spicy Eggplant

lil Mayo

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

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thatpatguy Newbie

thatpatguy

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were there photos with that article? I was there yesterday and some guy was walking around taking photos with a fancy ass camera.. I was wondering if someone was doing an article on them.. I was hoping it was something cool like a Lonely Planet guide or something

mmmmm.. Di Rienzo's

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AdamH Newbie

AdamH

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How does this sandwich compare to La Botega? They also offer the choice of bread, they offer all the condiments that are mentioned here and I think the sandwich is $3.50 or maybe $3.75 tops.

Best of all? If you order prosciutto they give you probably $10 of the stuff. I'll have to get out to Dirienzo's for comparison.

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peipunk Newbie

peipunk

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Ahhhh, my old routine, sniff *wipes tear from eye*. #1 for a long time, turkey and hot capicolla, but I'd usually sub in swiss for the Havarti (I found the Havarti to be a bit too rich to have regularly, but thats just me), lettuce tomato and onion, a bit of spicy eggplant, mayo no mustard. If the pocket wasn't too empty, I'd get a couple samosa for dessert. I think I'll look back on those times as my favourite lunch routine ever. Anybody else eat 2 sandwiches in a row, back to back? I did it twice, but there was a stiff price of a couple of hours of sloth-like activity. Who's with me, rubberdinghy, anybody? I just had lunch, but this thread has got me hungry all over again.

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bouche Apprentice

bouche

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I brought a yummy homemade pesto pasta with grilled chicken for lunch today, but after I read that article, I got the hunger on for the D. I realized I needed a Dirienzo's sandwich as a sidedish ;)

Here I sit after eating 1 chicken parm sandwich and 3/4 of the pesto pasta and an unbuckled belt ;)

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gentlemonkey Newbie

gentlemonkey

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awesome that everyone is so enthusiastic about the D, such nice people and tasty food! Been a fam tradition for a while.. Once you spend enough time in there, you start to get hooked on their shelf products too.. their olives, olive oil, hot peppers, eggplant, gnocchi, sundried tomato turkey... mmmm.

as for sandwiches, i dig hot-cappicola, prosciutto, havarti, dijon, mayo and eggplant. yaaaa. buote got me into the meatloaf too. warmed up... ooooh gaad.

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bouche Apprentice

bouche

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Once you spend enough time in there, you start to get hooked on their shelf products too.. their olives, olive oil, hot peppers, eggplant, gnocchi, sundried tomato turkey... mmmm.

we've been buying their Jumbo cheese Ravioli from teh freezer. It's killer with your own homemade tomato sauce! I've also bought their bacon. Excellent bacon!

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Velvet Rookie

Velvet

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I recently went in there and bought 32 sammiches, and it was my first time getting the pre-mades. Gotta say, love that chicken parm! And the meat loaf too.

He loaded me up with a bunch of free samosas too - enough to make a meal. I was pre-blessed.

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bouche Apprentice

bouche

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the roast beef is also killer. Roast Beef or Roast Beef Spezza. Unbelievable roast!

I told them yesterday that they were in the paper and on the front page of the National Post website. They smiled and got very excited. Lunchtime was just getting going, so they hadn't time to even realize.

Where'd this jaybone character come from ? ;)

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